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HEROES OF PROGRESS 



IN AMERICA 



BY 

CHARLES MORRIS 

AUTHOR OF "HISTORICAL TALES," "HALF-HOURS WITH 
AMERICAN AUTHORS," ETC. 




PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 
1906 






LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

NOV 27 i906 

*-». wODyriffht Entry 
.'■.•. ;A xxyf,, No. 
COPY B. 



Copyright, 1906 

by 

J. B. Lippincott Company 



Published November 1906 



PREFACE 

¥ ¥ 1^ 

In the history of every nation there is much more 
going on than wars and revolutions. These are brief 
in duration and rapid in effect, but in the long inter- 
vals between the years of strife the work of peace 
goes steadily forward, producing its changes more 
deliberately but with equal utility. The pioneer and 
the warrior are not the only figures that stand promi- 
nent in national archives, not the only individuals 
that rise to the surface of things. There are many 
persons who attain heroic proportions not as results of 
bold adventure or military skill and daring, but through 
aid to the progress of mankind in less showy but 
equally important ways. The careers of these workers 
for good usually present little of the striking or 
dramatic. Their histories are not of the coruscating 
order and their lineaments and proportions not those 
usually given to the heroic figure. Yet they are often 
heroes in the noblest sense, and do more for the 
advancement of mankind than he who draws the 
sword in his country's defence or plunges into the 
untrodden wilderness in efiforts to extend the borders 
of his nation's dominion. 

Broad are the realms of peace and many paths 
are open to those who traverse its confines. There 
are the highroads of statesmanship, of invention, of 
scientific research, of benevolent activity, of moral 
earnestness, and many besides, and on all these at 
times heroic figures appear to dwarf the forms of 

iii 



PREFACE 

ordinary men, the heroes of thought and devotion to 
a great purpose as opposed to the heroes of the 
embattled field. Our own history brings up to our 
mental vision many men and women of this kind, 
heroic in act and effort though no banners waved 
over them and no trumpets heralded them on their 
quiet course. It is deemed appropriate here to put 
on record the life stories of the more prominent 
among these, to tell in which field of effort they 
excelled, what new paths they opened, to what form 
of supremacy they owed their fame. The tale of 
these lives is often plain and simple, not marked by 
the telling events and striking deeds that give spice and 
variety to the biography of the soldier and the pioneer. 
It is often what they were rather than what they did 
that makes their characters great and notable. Their 
lives were given to the advancement of their country 
among the nations of the earth or to the benefit of 
their fellow citizens, and this in every field of quiet and 
persistent human efifort. With a valor and self- 
sacrifice equal or superior to those of the warrior they 
led us up to nobler heights and planted the banner of 
achievement on loftier altitudes than those usually 
reached by the pathway of the sword. 

In the uplifting of the United States to its present 
high level many men of many parts have borne a 
share. First came the discoverer and the pioneer, the 
daring traversers of unknown seas and savage wilds. 
Then, as occasion arose, came the fighter by land and 
sea, striking for liberty and union and sowing the land 
with memories of valiant deeds. But during our whole 
history heroes of daily life or national develop- 
ment have arisen, cementing the edifice of our govern- 
ment, issuing in thunder tones the call for right and 

iv 



PREFACE 

justice, working in various ways for the happiness 
and benefit of their fellows. There are many of these. 
We have been obliged to confine our attention to those 
of chief prominence and to deal with these but briefly. 
But we trust that the records of noble life and useful 
achievement here given may prove interesting and in- 
spiring to readers, and serve to show that the heroes of 
mankind are of many types, and that the conqueror is 
not only he who leads victorious armies over prostrate 
realms, but also he who faces hostile circumstances 
or braves threatening situations, winning through 
sheer force of energy and intellect where men of 
smaller mould would have shrunk back in dismay. Of 
such stuff are made the heroes of peace and progress, 
and we here present some of the chief among those 
who have nobly helped to make the United States great 
among the nations of the earth. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Roger Williams, the Pioneer of Religious Liberty. ... 9 

John Eliot, the Apostle to the Indians 16 

William Penn, the Friend of the Red Men 21 

James Oglethorpe and the Debtors' Refuge 2y 

Benjamin Franklin, the Father of the American 

Union ZZ 

Patrick Henry, the Orator of the Revolution 44 

Samuel Adams, the Pioneer of American Liberty 51 

Thomas Jefferson, the Author of the Declaration of 

Independence ,"■6 

Robert Morris, the Financier of the Revolution 66 

Alexander Hamilton, the Architect of American 

Finance 76 

John Adams, the Leader of the Boston Patriots 85 

•• Eli Whitney, America's first great Inventor 91 

••Robert Fulton, the Inventor of the Steamboat 96 

John Jacob Astor, the Monarch of the Fur Industry ioi 

Stephen Girard, the Friend of the Orphan 107 

John Marshall, the Expounder of the Constitution. . 115 

^Henry Clay, the great Advocate of Compromise 120 

— Daniel Webster, the Giant of the American Senate 129 
-'John C. Calhoun, the Champion of Southern Insti- 
tutions 138 

•» Samuel F. B. Morse, the Discoverer of Electric Teleg- 
raphy 145 

*• Cyrus W. Field, the Designer of the Atlantic Cable. . 153 
-» Elias Howe, the Inventor of the Sewing Machine. . . . 159 
•r Cyrus H. McCormick, the Developer of the Reaping 

Machine 166 

•jCharles Goodyear, the Prince of the Rubber Industry 171 

DeWitt Clinton, the Father of the Erie Canal 177 

vii 



CONTENTS— Continued 

PAGE 

'• Horace Wells and the Discoverers of Anesthesia... 184 

William Lloyd Garrison, the Great Emancipator 192 

Wendell Phillips, the Silver-Tongued Orator of 

Reform i99 

Charles Sumner, the Champion of Political Honor. . 214 
Lucretia Mott, the Quakeress Advocate of Reform.. 219 
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the Women's Rights Pioneer 226 
Susan B. Anthony, the Old Guard of Women Suf- 
frage 232 

Dorothea Dix, the Saviour of the Insane 239 

George Peabody, the Banker Philanthropist 245 

Peter Cooper, the Benefactor of the Uneducated 253 

• Abraham Lincoln, the Emancipator of the Slave.... 260 
William H, Seward, the War-time Secretary of State 270 
James G. Blaine, the Plumed Knight of Republican- 
ism 278 

Horace" Greeley, the Premier of American Editors. .. . 287 

<*JoHN Ericsson, the Inventor of the Monitor 296 

•• Thomas A. Edison, the Wizard of Invention 301 

Frances E. Willard, the Woman's Temperance Leader 309 

Clara Barton, the Red Cross Evangel of Mercy 317 

Andrew Carnegie, the Apostle of the Gospel of 

Wealth 325 

Booker T, Washington, the Pioneer of Negro Progress 335 



Vu 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



MoNTiCELLO Frontispiece, 

PAGE 

Title-page to Eliot's Algonquin Bible i6 

West's Picture of Penn's Treaty 22 

House in which Franklin was Born 34 

Astoria 102 

Girard College 108 

Webster, Clay, and Jackson 130 

" Roadside," the Home of Lucretia Mott 220 

Lincoln's Birth-place 260 

Battle of the Monitor and the Merrimac 296 

Edison's Magnetic Ore Separator 302 

Dining-room and Office in Clara Barton's Home 318 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 

ROGER WILLIAMS, THE PIONEER OF 
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY 

The Pilgrims and Puritans, who made their homes 
at Plymouth and Boston and were the first settlers 
of New England, were pious and God-fearing people, 
but with all that they were hard folks to live with for 
people who did not think just as they did. Though 
they had left England in the cause of religious liberty 
they were not ready to give religious liberty to any 
one who came among them. The Quakers, who 
were persecuted in England, were treated worse still 
in Boston, and when a young Puritan minister named 
Roger Williams came to Boston and began to preach 
in favor of liberty of thought he soon found himself 
in trouble. 

The Puritans passed laws to punish every one who 
did not go to church. Williams said this was not right. 
He also said that the Indians were very badly treated, 
and that the king of England had no right to give 
away their land without paying them for it. These 
and other things which he was bold enough to say 
made the rulers very angry, and he was first obliged 
to leave Boston and afterwards ordered to leave Salem, 
where he had started a church. 

The daring young preacher now declared that he 



lo HEROES OF PROGRESS 

would start a colony of his own where every one might 
believe what he thought right. This and other things 
said by him made the Puritan rulers so furious that 
they determined to seize him and send him back to 
England. They would not have any man in their 
colony who chose to think for himself and would not 
let them think for him. 

Officers were sent to arrest him, but he was told of 
their coming just in time to make his escape. It was 
midwinter. The weather was very cold. Snow cov- 
ered the ground. Wild beasts roamed the woods 
in search of food. But Roger Williams was deter- 
mined to keep his freedom even at the risk of his 
life, and he fled alone into the wilderness, leaving his 
wife, children, and friends behind in Salem. There 
was danger from the elements, danger from the wolves 
and bears, but he cared less for them than he did for 
the harsh and bitter Puritans of Boston. 

He had no fear of the Indians. He had lived among 
them, learned their speech and ways of living, listened 
to the story of their wrongs and spoken boldly in their 
favor. They looked upon him as their best friend, 
and he set out to find Massasoit, one of their great 
chiefs, whose love he had won by acts of kindness 
in former years. 

The poor fugitive had a hard journey before him. 
Massasoit lived about eighty miles to the south, and 
a wide wilderness lay between, freezingly cold in that 
winter season, and with few inhabitants. Now and 
then he came to the hut of an Indian, who gave him 
food and shelter, but at other times he had to take 
refuge in hollow trees, or sleep on a bed of leaves 
beside a woodland fire. It was a cold and miserable 
journey, one which even the Indians did not care to 
take at that season, and he was glad enough when, 



HEROES OF PROGRESS ii 

after long days of wandering, he reached the cabin of 
the friend and kind-hearted chief. 

Massasoit greeted him joyfully as the friend of the 
red man, gave him shelter and a royal welcome till 
spring, and then presented him a tract of land beside 
the Seekonk River. When the spring opened five of 
his friends from Salem joined him, and they began 
to build a cabin on their land and plant a field with 
corn. But the corn had not begun to sprout before 
he learned that the ground he was on was within the 
limits claimed by the Plymouth settlement. Governor 
Winthrop, who was secretly a friend of the fugitive, 
sent him a letter advising him to cross to the other 
side of the water, where he might have the whole 
country to himself and do as he pleased. 

When this word came Williams and his friends aban- 
doned their partly-buih cabin and planted field and 
set off in a canoe in search of a place where they 
could be safely out of the reach of the Puritans. 

As they paddled along the Indians by the riverside 
greeted the good pastor as their friend, hailed him 
cheerily, and when he landed and talked with some 
of them they told him to go a little farther down, say- 
ing that he would find a good place to build and a 
fine spring of water. The spot was soon found. It 
was on the west side of the Rhode Island peninsula, 
near the mouth of the Moshassuck River. Williams 
named it Providence, saying that a good Providence 
had helped him. On that spot stands to-day the fine 
city of Providence. 

Roger Williams had now an opportunity to carry 
out the liberal ideas which had given so much offense 
to the Boston Puritans. In Providence, he said, relig- 
ion should be free. It should be a place of refuge 
for all who wished to worship God in their own way. 



12 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

All he would ask of the people would be to obey the 
laws made for the good of the settlement. But this 
was to be " only in civil things/' In religion con- 
science was to be the only law. No one had the right 
to try and force any man to think in his way, or to 
punish him for not doing so. 

We of to-day, who are accustomed to full liberty in 
religion, may not understand how great a thing this 
was at that time. Then no such thing had been 
thought of. Every country in Europe had its own 
religion and bitterly persecuted all who set up other 
creeds. And there was no liberty of thought in 
America, among either the Spanish, French, or Eng- 
lish. Even the Puritans, who had come to America 
to escape persecution, began, as we have seen, by per- 
secuting the first man who taught new doctrines. 
Roger Williams was the pioneer in setting up a colony 
that had no fixed form of religion. Afterwards Lord 
Baltimore and William Penn wisely did the same. 

No one can say that Roger Williams was not a good 
Christian, a better one than those who drove him from 
his home, for he soon risked his own life to save them 
from danger. The fierce and warlike Indians of the 
Pequot tribe had made an attack on the settlers and 
were trying to get the large and powerful tribe of the 
Narragansetts to join them. They wished to kill 
all the white people of the Plymouth colony and drive 
the pale-faces from the country. 

The people of Plymouth, and of Boston too, were in 
a great fright when they heard of this. They knew 
that Roger Williams was the only white man in 
that region who had any influence with the Indians, 
and they sent to him, begging him to go to the Nar- 
ragansett camp and ask them not to join the Pequots. 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 13 

Many men would have refused to go into a horde 
of raging savages for the safety of their enemies, but 
Roger Wilhams was too noble to refuse, though he 
knew that his life would be in the utmost danger, for 
some of the bloodthirsty Pequots were then with the 
Narragansetts. He promptly went to the Indian camp 
and spent three days in the wigwams of the sachems, 
though he expected every night to have the treacher- 
ous Pequots " put their bloody knives to his throat/' 

But the Narragansetts were strong friends of the 
honest pastor ; they listened to his counsel, and in the 
end they and another tribe, the Mohicans, joined the 
English against the Pequots. Thus it was chiefly 
due to Roger Williams that the colonists were saved 
from the scalping-knives of the Indians. Yet when 
Governor Winthrop asked that the fugitive should be 
called back from banishment and rewarded in some 
way for his services the rulers at Boston refused to do 
so. A hard-hearted and stiff-necked people were those 
old Puritans. They had made laws for heaven and 
earth and would have no man among them who did not 
yield to these laws. 

When, later on, the other colonies of New England 
joined in a league for defence, they would have nothing 
to do with the little colony at Providence. This band 
of rebels must take care of themselves. Their only 
friends were the Indians, and they had hard work 
to keep on good terms with these when the other 
colonies were treating them with injustice. To many 
of the savages all white men were alike. 

In the end the people of the Providence settlement, 
to which had come all those Vv^ho did not like the 
hard rule of the Puritans, sent Roger Williams to 
England to get them a charter that would protect them 



14 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

from the despots of Boston, who were not wilHng to 
let them alone. Williams set sail in 1643, and was soon 
back with his charter. He had been kindly greeted in 
the home country and brought back many good wishes 
for his little colony of religious rebels. 

But the charter did not say enough ; trouble with the 
other colonies did not end. They treated the people of 
Rhode Island with contempt and injustice. Three men 
from Newport, who went to visit an old friend at 
Lynn, were fined and imprisoned. So Williams was 
begged to go to London again to get a better charter. 

But the people were too poor to pay his way. He 
went on their business, but they could not raise the 
money for his expenses, and to get the necessary funds 
he had to sell the trading house he had started. When 
he got to England he found that country in such 
disorder from its civil war that nothing could be done. 
He was a good scholar and he taught languages to a 
number of young men to pay the cost of his journey, 
but after three years he had to go back without his 
charter. But he had met and become the friend of 
Cromwell, Milton, and other great men. 

Trouble had broken out among the towns of Rhode 
Island. Some wanted one thing and some another, 
and they quarrelled and wTangled until it seemed as 
if nothing could settle their dispute. It was this that 
brought Williams home to his colony, but it took 
even him a number of years to make peace among 
them. At length he succeeded. The towns formed a 
union, he was chosen for their president, and all went 
well. But it was ten years after he left England before 
the new charter was received. 

After that for twelve years peace and prosperity 
existed in Rhode Island. The colony grew. No man 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 15 

interfered with another man's religion. All those who 
did not want to be forced to go to church or to accept 
a special creed came to the colony of Roger Williams. 
He was their principal pastor, and was so kind, gentle, 
and good that everybody respected and loved him. 
They were his children. He had brought them to- 
gether and spent his time in working for their good, 
and they looked on him as their best friend. 

When Williams grew quite old he was still strong 
and able, attending to his public duties and his private 
business, writing religious tracts, and preaching to 
the people and the Indians. But now a terrible Indian 
war began. The natives of the country, furious 
at the bad treatment they had received, rose in 
arms and tried to kill all the whites or drive them 
from the country. This was what is known as King 
Philip's War. There were many terrible scenes while 
it lasted. In this war the Narragansetts joined the 
other Indians, and the savage warriors marched to- 
wards Providence. 

Williams, then over seventy years old, went out 
once more to meet them, as boldly as he had done 
years before. The old chiefs of the Narragansetts knew 
him well and told him that they were still his friends, 
but that the young warriors were so furious against 
all the white men that it would not be safe for him 
to go among them. They were determined and nothing 
could be done to stop the war. 

Roger Williams went sorrowfully home again 
and told the people they would have to fight for their 
lives. The war ended after a year, King Philip 
and most of the Indians being destroyed. The good 
old pastor lived seven years longer, and died in 1683, 
loved by all who knew him. 



JOHN ELIOT, THE APOSTLE OF THE 

INDIANS 

The white men who came to America had two ways 
of deahng with the Indians. One way was with the 
musket and the sword ; the other was with the Bible 
and the voice of justice and peace. Most men took the 
first way ; a few only took the second. One of these was 
Roger Williams, whose story we have told. Another 
was John Eliot, whose story we have now to tell. 

While Roger Williams was raising his voice for 
justice to the Indians and going among them in the 
interest of peace, John Eliot was carrying to them 
the Word of God and devoting his life to bringing 
them into the fold of Christ. He was one of those 
noble-hearted heroes of good to whom^ life means only 
work for the benefit of the poor and ignorant, and he 
won fame by his earnestness in doing his duty. 

John Eliot was born in England of a Puritan family. 
He was educated at the University of Cambridge, 
where he showed much quickness in the study of lan- 
guages. It was this that helped him in later years, when 
he began his famous work of translating the Bible into 
the speech of the Indians. 

He was one of the early settlers of Boston, where 
he preached for a time, afterwards going to a church in 
Roxbury. The people he preached to thought a great 
deal of him, and he was very successful among them, 
but all the time, in his home and in the pulpit, there 
was another matter in his mind. He could not help 
thinking of the poor pagan savages, the old owners of 
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HEROES OF PROGRESS 17 

the land. From the day he landed and saw for himself 
the ways of life of the ignorant natives his soul was 
filled with the desire to teach and uplift them. He 
longed to convert them from superstition to Chris- 
tianity and to bring them out of their wild and savage 
ways. 

This matter got into the good man's heart and 
soul. It was with him day and night. Finally 
he could bear it no longer, but made up his mind to 
give up his church and to go out into the wilderness 
among the Indians, to live with them, preach to them, 
and teach them the truths of the Christian faith. 

But before doing this he felt that he must learn their 
mode of speech, so that he could talk to them in their 
own tongue and be sure that they understood him. 
He wanted to speak like them and live like them, and 
in this way to gain influence over them. He had, as 
we have said, a talent for languages, and after a good 
deal of hard study he got to know that of the neighbor- 
ing Indians very well. It is doubtful if any other 
white man ever knew it so well, as will be seen when 
you have read all that he did with it. 

When he was able to talk with the Indians easily he 
left the settlements and went among them, to spend 
his life in their wigwams, telling them what the Bible 
contained and teaching them better ways of living. 
They gathered around him in their villages and listened 
eagerly to him, ready and glad to hear all he had to 
say, for they saw that this white man was their friend. 
On mossy banks and in quiet dales, on the verdant 
shores of streams or among the dwellings of the 
natives, he would talk to them of virtue and honor and 
good living, and he soon had many ardent followers. 

When we read of his work, in the quaint old record 
2 



i8 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

he made of it, we are interested in the curious ques- 
tions they asked him. One Indian did not think that 
Jesus Christ could understand a prayer in the Indian 
language. And when he told them the story of the 
deluge, he was asked how the world became full of 
people after they had all been drowned. These and 
others of the kind were natural questions, but it is likely 
he found easy answers to them. Of course he had 
to talk in a very simple way to make his uneducated 
hearers understand him. 

You may be sure that Eliot did not find his new life 
an easy or comfortable one. All the red men were not 
his friends. Some of them doubted and suspected 
him, others were angry with him for asking them to 
give up their old beliefs. He needed to be a brave and 
daring man, for his life was often in danger. Some 
of the chiefs did all they could to stop his work, tell- 
ing their people that he was seeking to bring them 
under the rule of the white man, and trying to frighten 
him by threats. And the medicine men, the priests 
of the Indians, were bitter against him, for they feared 
that they would lose their power if he went on with 
his teachings. 

But nothing could stop the ardent missionary in his 
work. He went from village to village and from 
tribe to tribe, dwelling in their wigwams, living on 
their food, and adopting their ways. He made long 
journeys on foot through the wilderness, enduring the 
hardships of cold and hunger, passing through many 
perils, but always cheerful, never repining. He was 
held up by faith and confidence in his mission, and 
said, " I am about the work of God ; I need not fear.'* 

But we have not told the greatest work done by John 
Eliot, one of the most difficult tasks ever undertaken 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 19 

by any missionary to the Indians. Finding that he 
needed written as well as spoken words to aid him in 
his duties, he undertook the enormous labor of trans- 
lating the whole Bible into the Indian language. This 
wonderful performance was done not for his own 
benefit, but to aid all Christian laborers among the 
Indians. And to make this easy for others, he also 
wrote an Indian grammar to assist them in learning the 
speech of the natives. 

This would seem enough for any one man, but it 
was a small part of Eliot's work. What he most 
wished to do was to collect the men and women he 
converted to the Christian faith into separate towns, 
that they might give up their savage life and take up 
the habits of civilized people. But he did not want 
these towns to be too near the English settlements. 
He thought it best to have his converts live by them- 
selves, and away from the influence of the white people. 

So he settled his " praying Indians," as they were 
called, on tracts of land far from the settlements, 
taught them how to raise other crops than corn, and 
gave them instruction in many of the industries of 
the whites. 

The first town founded by him was at Natick, 
Massachusetts. This was in the year 1660. The meet- 
ing-house there was the first ever built by Protestants 
for Indian use, though the Jesuits of Canada had 
several in their settlements along the Great Lakes and 
the St. Lawrence River. Before Eliot's work ended 
he had established thirteen or more little Indian settle- 
ments, in which he aimed to make peace and industry 
the rule and the Bible the law and guide of the people. 

But the disturbances and the wars among the Indians 
interfered greatly with the work of this noble and 



20 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

devoted pioneer of the Christian faith. The injustice 
of the whites troubled him exceedingly, and the bloody 
struggle known as King Philip's War went far to 
destroy all the good he had done. At that time, it is 
thought, America had about five thousand " praying 
Indians." 

After the war the whites were very bitter against 
the Indians and treated them cruelly, many of them 
being sold into slavery. Eliot did all he could for the 
protection of his peaceful converts, but his life's work 
was ruined by the war, and it was too late to begin 
it again. He was now an old man, too feeble to preach, 
yet he continued to do what he could, and to the end of 
his life went on writing religious books, not willing 
to cease while a hope of doing good was left. 

The great work of his life, the Indian Bible, was 
published in 1663. No man had ever accomplished 
a greater or more unselfish task. Only two editions 
of it were ever printed, for with the destruction which 
fell upon the Indians of that region few were left 
who could speak the Indian dialect in which it was 
written. But it remains an imperishable honor to 
the memory of the great John Eliot. 

He lived to be eighty-six years of age, dying ripe 
in years and honors on the twentieth of May, 1690, at 
Roxbury, Massachusetts. In his death passed away 
one of the noblest of men. 



WILLIAM PENN, THE FRIEND OF THE 

RED MEN 

It made no small stir in English society when 
young William Penn, whose father was a famous 
admiral and the friend of the King, joined the poor and 
despised society known as the Quakers. They called 
themselves Friends, and tried to be the friends of all 
the world, but they did not find the world very friendly 
in return, for they were very badly treated, many of 
them being sent to jail for daring to have a religion 
of their own. 

It was while William Penn was at college that he took 
up these new ideas, and he was turned out of college 
for doing so. When his father heard of this he was fu- 
rious. He beat the boy and turned him out of doors, 
and the poor lad would have fared very badly but for 
his mother, who sent him money. Finding that his 
severity had no effect on the young rebel, his father 
let him return home and soon after sent him to France, 
hoping that in that gay country he would get rid of 
his foolish notions. 

When the young man came back he seemed to be 
cured of Quakerism, but it was not long before he 
took it up again, and his father once more turned 
him into the street. William Penn now had to suffer 
like the poorer Quakers. He was arrested for attend- 
ing their meetings, and was kept for eight months in 
prison for writing in their favor. But all this had no 
effect on him, and he continued to write and preach. 

Admiral Penn died at length, and his son became 

21 



22 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

the head of the house. He now wished more than ever 
to help his fellow sufferers. He became one of the 
owners of New Jersey, in America, and aided some 
of them to go there. And the idea soon came to him to 
get a place of his own in the New World that might be 
a haven of refuge for all men of his faith. 

Charles U., the King, had owed Admiral Penn a 
large sum of money. This was now due to William 
Penn, but the king had other uses for his money than 
to pay his debts, and the young man asked him to settle 
the claim by granting him a tract of land in America. 

King Charles was ready enough to do this. It was 
very easy for him to give away land which did not 
belong to him, and he made over to Penn a large tract 
of territory north of Lord Baltimore's colony. All 
the right the king kept for himself was a payment of 
two beaver-skins a year and one-fifth of all the gold 
and silver found. As there was no gold or silver there, 
the king had to be content with his beaver-skins. 

Charles was well satisfied with this easy way of 
getting out of debt. He named the country Penn- 
sylvania, or " Penn's Woods." Penn was equally well 
satisfied. He had got a fine home for his fellow 
Quakers, and he easily persuaded a number of them 
to cross the ocean to America. The next year, 1682, 
he sailed himself with a company of emigrants in a 
ship well-named the *' Welcome," and landed with 
them on the green banks of the noble Delaware River. 

He landed at a place called Upland by the Swedes 
who lived there at that time, but which he named 
Chester. Before leaving England he had formed 
a system of laws for the new colony, and these he now 
made known. Like Roger Williams, he declared that 
every man was free to worship God in his own way 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 23 

and that no one should be made to suffer for his relig- 
ion. The people were also free to make their own laws, 
but they must obey them when once made. No one 
should be put to death except for murder or treason, 
and every prison was to be made a workshop and place 
of reformation — a new idea in prison management. 
Such were some of the principal features of Penn's 
" Great Law." 

Another very just thing William Penn did. Al- 
though Charles II. had made him a grant of the land in 
America, he knew very well that the king had no 
right to give away what did not belong to him. The 
Indians, the old owners of the soil, thought the same 
thing. So he and those with him met a large party of 
the Indians under a great elm tree on the banks of 
the Delaware and offered to pay them for the land 
which he wanted for his colony. 

They were quite ready to sell it, and a treaty of 
peace and friendship was made which was to last as 
long " as the creeks and rivers run and while the sun, 
moon, and stars endure." No oaths were taken to bind 
this treaty; it was simply signed by the Indian chiefs 
and the Quaker leaders ; and some one has said of it 
that it was " the only treaty in history that was never 
sworn to and never broken." 

From that time forward the Friends and the Indians 
lived in peace. No Friend ever robbed or hurt an 
Indian, and no Indian ever hurt a Friend. They 
dwelt together for many years in harmony, the Indians 
looking upon Penn and his people as friends and 
brothers. Long afterwards they bore in memory the 
great " Mignon," as they called Penn, and told their 
children of his justice and goodness. They had trouble 
with other people, but not with the peace-loving 
Quakers. 



24 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

When William Penn died, years afterwards, the 
Indians of Pennsylvania sent some beautiful furs to 
his widow in memory of their great and good brother. 
These, they said, were to make her a cloak, " to protect 
her while she was passing without her guide through 
the thorny wilderness of life." 

The elm tree under which this treaty was made 
stood on the river bank near where Penn founded his 
city of Philadelphia, or '' Brotherly Love." When 
the British held Philadelphia during the Revolution 
a sentinel was stationed by this tree to prevent the 
soldiers from cutting it down for firewood. It blew 
down in a storm in 1810, and the spot where it stood is 
now marked by a monument and a small public park. 

The land where Philadelphia stands was held by the 
Swedes, who bought it from the Indians. Penn 
bought it from them, and laid out there the site of a 
handsome city, with broad and straight streets, cross- 
ing each other at right angles, and many of them named 
after the trees of the forest. In the centre and in each 
of the four quarters spaces for public squares were 
left. Along the river houses were rapidly built, and 
soon a small city arose. 

When everything was in order and all was moving 
well, and when new settlers were coming rapidly to the 
new city in the New World, William Penn bade his 
people good-by and sailed back to England. He was 
wanted there. The Quakers were being very badly 
treated. He went to the king and asked him to have 
these persecutions stopped, and Charles ordered that 
this should be done. 

But there were many peop'e shut up in the prisons 
on account of their religious belief, which differed from 
that taught by the ministers of the Church of England. 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 25 

Twelve hundred of these were Quakers, and there were 
many of other sects. When Charles II. died, which 
he did soon after Penn's return, his brother James took 
the throne. He and Penn had always been friends, 
and when the latter asked the king to have these poor 
sufferers set free, it was done. The prison doors were 
opened and they were allowed to go out. 

William Penn had done a splendid work for the good 
of humanity, but he was made to suffer in many ways. 
James II. proved a bad king and was driven from the 
throne, and William of Orange took his place. As Penn 
had been the friend of King James, he was accused of 
treason and was put in prison. He was soon set free, 
but then new charges were brought against him, and he 
had to keep out of the way of his enemies. The govern- 
ment of his province in America was also taken from 
him, but King William gave it back when he found 
that Penn had been falsely accused. 

Penn went back to America in 1699. He found the 
colony very prosperous. Philadelphia had got to be 
quite a flourishing city, and people were settling 
in many other places. But many of these were not 
Quakers, and there was bad feeling between the dif- 
ferent members of the colony. Other things had gone 
wrong, and many asked for greater privileges than the 
charter gave them. William Penn was willing to grant 
them all the liberty he could, and a new and very liberal 
constitution was made, which gave much of the power 
in the government to the people. Another treaty was 
made with the Indians, their condition and that of the 
negro slaves in the colony was made better, and then, 
in 1 70 1, Penn returned to England. He was never to 
see his colony again. 

The good friend of the Indians and the oppressed 



26 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

was growing old now, and his troubles increased. 
Many of the settlers did not pay their rents, and he 
got so deeply in debt that he was obliged to mortgage 
his province. There were new troubles in his colony, 
there was more persecution of the Quakers at home, 
his property was badly managed, and when the Penn- 
sylvania Assembly was asked to loan him some money 
to help him out of his difficulties it refused. 

Finally the noble old man was put in prison for debt, 
and was kept there till some of his friends raised 
enough money to procure his release. One cannot 
help thinking that William Penn was a very poor busi- 
ness man, and that, while doing so much for others, he 
neglected to look out for his own interests. This has 
been the way with many of the best of men, and 
it is greatly to their honor. 

It was certainly a great sorrow to him that those for 
Vv^hom he had given his work, his time, and his money 
had proved so ungrateful. Now that he was old and 
in distress none of those for whom he had done so 
much came to his aid. Worn out with his troubles, 
he was about to sell his province to the king when 
he was stricken with paralysis. He died in 1718, 
leaving the province to his sons. 

We cannot say much in favor of Penn's sons. 
Their policy was much less just and liberal than his, 
and their actions caused much irritation and bad feel- 
ing in the colony. Disputes continued until after the 
war of the Revolution, when the State of Penn- 
sylvania bought out the interest of the Penns for the 
sum of six hundred and fifty thousand dollars. A 
small price this, but all colonial rights were then at 
an end and the State might have refused to pay any- 
thing. 



JAMES OGLETHORPE AND THE 
DEBTORS' REFUGE 

In the days of our forefathers, two or three 
hundred years ago, England was not a pleasant place 
to live in. And not only England, but all Europe. 
It is hard for us to appreciate in these days of merci- 
ful laws and kindly customs how cruelly people were 
treated only that short time ago. In former stories 
we have told of the severe way they were dealt 
with if they did not worship God in the manner the 
government told them to do. And men then were 
punished very severely for the smallest offences. 
Great numbers were hung for crimes that would 
be thought of little importance in our days. 

As for the prisons, they were terrible places. The 
prisons of to-day are palaces compared with them. 
Close, dark, foul smelling, full of the germs of disease, 
and crowded with poor wretches of all kinds and 
classes, they were the most horrible places one could 
think of. And into these dreadful homes of filth and 
pestilence were thrust not only the law-breakers and 
the religious dissenters, but also the debtors — poor 
men who owed money they could not pay. 

There were hundreds of miserable debtors in the 
prisons, kept where they could not earn the money to 
pay their debts. Many of them took sick and died, and 
some were starved to death by cruel jailers, who 
would not give them food if they had no money to 
pay for it. The law said that creditors should find 
food for those they put in jail for debt, but this 

27 



28 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

was often not done, and the poor debtors suffered 
dreadfully. 

In the days when George II. was King of England 
some of these debtors found a friend. He was a 
brave English soldier named James Oglethorpe, a 
general in the British army. He asked about a friend 
of his who had been put in prison for debt, and was told 
that he had died there. When he heard this he went to 
the debtors' prison to see how they were treated, and 
what he saw there made him sick at heart. Here 
were numbers of honest men, willing to work if 
they could, many of them kept in misery and want be- 
cause their creditors were angry and revengeful. 

When General Oglethorpe saw this he determined 
to do what he could for these poor fellows. If they 
were set at liberty many of them would find no work 
to do, but a home might be made for them in America, 
where they would have the chance to make a fresh 
start in life. 

So the good general went to King George and 
asked him for a grant of land in America to which 
he could take some of the most deserving of these 
debtors, with their families. This was in 1732. Most 
of the land in the British part of America had already 
been settled. There only remained the region between 
South Carolina and Florida, which was still left to 
the Indians. The British and the Spanish both 
claimed it, but neither had occupied it, and Oglethorpe 
proposed to make his colony a military one, that would 
keep the Spaniards and the Indians in order and 
protect the English settlements. 

George II. willingly granted him the land, and the 
new province was called Georgia, after his name. 
Oglethorpe paid the debts of some of the most worthy 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 29 

of the debtors, and in 1733 took out a ship-load of 
settlers to America. They were not all debtors, for 
he opened his place of refuge to all the poor and 
unfortunate and to those who were ill-treated on 
account of their religion. 

In good time the vessel reached the coast of America 
and sailed into the waters of a fine river to which 
Oglethorpe gave the name of Savannah. He also 
gave this name to a town which he laid out on its 
banks. Thus it was that the colony of Georgia was 
begun with some of the poorest and most unfortunate 
people in England, brought there by one of the most 
noble-hearted of its men. 

The debtors soon showed that all they wanted was 
a chance to work and earn their living. They had 
been given new life by being taken from prison, and 
were like new men. They set to at once to cut down 
trees, build houses, and plant fields, and in a little 
time the settlement began to look prosperous and 
flourishing. 

For a whole year General Oglethorpe lived in a 
tent, set up under four pine trees. He was an upright 
man, and, like William Penn, he knew that it was not 
the king, but the natives, who owned the land, and that 
he had no right to it unless he paid them for it. 

So, like William Penn, he called the Indian chiefs 
together and talked with them and made a treaty, 
agreeing to buy from them at their own price the 
land he wanted. As the Indians had much more land 
than they needed, they were quite willing to sell. 
They seem to have grown to love Oglethorpe as 
the Indians of Pennsylvania loved William Penn. 
Some of them gave him a buffalo skin on the inside 
of which was a painting of the head and feathers of 



30 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

an eagle. They said to him, " The feathers of the 
eagle are soft, which signifies love ; the skin is warm, 
and is the emblem of protection ; therefore love and 
protect our little families." After that the people 
of Georgia lived in harmony with the Indians of the 
colony. All the trouble they had was with the Florida 
Indians, whom the Spaniards stirred up to molest 
them. 

It was not long before new settlers came to the 
debtors' colony. Some of these were German Mo- 
ravians and Lutherans, who had been persecuted at 
home. Others were Highlanders from Scotland, who 
had also been ill-treated. Oglethorpe welcomed them 
all and gave them lands where they could form new 
settlements. He was proud of his colony of High- 
landers, and whenever he visited them he wore the 
Highland dress, which pleased them highly and won 
him a warm Scotch welcome. 

Georgia soon began to thrive. The climate was 
warm, so there was no suffering from bitter winter 
weather, as in the north. Some of them planted 
corn, others began to raise rice and indigo. Mulberry 
trees grew wild in the forest, and silkworms were 
brought from England to feed on their leaves. People 
also came out who understood silk making. The silk 
culture was kept up till the Revolution, but not 
much money was made by it. A silk dress was made 
for the Queen of England out of the first silk pro- 
duced. In the end cotton took the place of silk and 
proved far more profitable. 

Among the people who came to the new colony 
were John and Charles Wesley, who had founded the 
new sect of the Methodists in England. Their purpose 
was to try and make Christians of the Indians. After- 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 31 

wards there came to Georgia another noted Methodist, 
named George Whitefield, a preacher of wonderful 
eloquence, who made his way through the colonies, 
preaching to great multitudes of people. With the 
money they gave him he supported an orphan asylum 
which he had established near Savannah. 

There were some very curious and very unusual 
things in the government of the Georgia colony. 
Slaves were then in common use in all the colonies, 
but Oglethorpe would not let any be brought into 
his settlements. He looked on human slavery as a 
great evil. And he also knew what a bad thing 
liquor drinking was in England, and would not let any 
one bring rum into Georgia. All religions were free 
except the Roman Catholic, but he forbade any 
Catholics to come into his colony. 

Another law that was made was that no man 
should own a farm beyond a fixed size. He did 
not want either rich or poor men, but tried to keep 
all on one level. A curious law was that no w^oman 
should have land left her by will. Georgia was to be 
a military colony, and every one who held land was 
bound to serve as a soldier when called upon. This 
was why women, who could not act as soldiers, were 
forbidden to own land. That was not all. There 
was no political freedom. All laws were to be made 
by Oglethorpe and the company he had formed, and 
the people were deprived of self-government. 

Before saying what became of these laws and regu- 
lations there is another matter to speak of. Though 
Spain had not sent a settler into the region of Georgia, 
she laid claim to it by the right of discovery, for Narvaez 
and De Soto had journeyed over it two centuries be- 
fore. The Spaniards of Florida were very angry 



32 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

when they found the EngHsh settHng there, and when 
a war broke out between England and Spain there was 
some hard fighting in that region. Oglethorpe raised 
an army of white men and Indians in 1740, and tried 
to take the Spanish city of St. Augustine. He failed in 
this, and two years afterwards a Spanish army of three 
thousand men and a fleet of many vessels were sent 
north to take Georgia from the English. This failed 
also and the colony was saved. 

Some time after this Oglethorpe went back to Eng- 
land. He never returned to America again. In fact, 
he had plenty of trouble at home. The people com- 
plained so bitterly about the severe laws he had made 
that in time they were all repealed, for they were in- 
juring the progress of the colony. People were then 
permitted to keep negro slaves, the laws about land- 
holding were changed, and the settlers were allowed 
to make laws for themselves. It would have been a 
good thing if the law to keep out rum had been kept, 
but strong drink gradually made its way in. In fact, 
Oglethorpe grew so tired of the complaints that in 
1752 he gave his province back to the king, and from 
that time Georgia was a royal colony. 

James Oglethorpe was a good and noble-hearted 
man, but he did not know just how to govern col- 
onists and was wise enough in the end to give up the 
effort and leave them to govern themselves. He lived 
to be a very old man, not dying till long after the Revo- 
lution, when Georgia was a flourishing State of the 
American Union, and the little town he had started on 
the Savannah River was a fine city, its broad streets 
planted with beautiful shade trees. No doubt he took 
great pride in the handsome city and the large State 
which owed their origin to him. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, THE FATHER OF 
THE AMERICAN UNION 

Far back in colonial days there lived in Boston a 
poor candle-maker named Josiah Franklin, who, like 
many poor men, was rich in children. There were 
seventeen of them in all, but only one of these, the 
youngest son, was ever heard of afterwards. But this 
one made up for all the rest, for he grew to be one of 
the greatest men in the whole history of the American 
colonies. 

Little Benjamin showed himself a bright boy, but he 
had not much chance for schooling. His father had so 
many children that they had to help him make a living, 
and Benjamin was put into his father's soap and 
candle shop when he was ten years old, his school life 
lasting only two years. He had learned little more 
than how to read and write, but, like Abraham Lincoln, 
many years afterwards, he made very good use of this 
small learning. 

He was very fond of books, but had to do all his 
reading at night by the light of the kitchen fire, or per- 
haps by a tallow candle of his own making. He was 
an active and industrious lad, though as fond perhaps 
of play as of work and, like a true boy, at times given 
to mischief. He loved the water, and after a while 
took a fancy to be a sailor, as he was getting very 
tired of candle and soap making. His father was 
afraid he might run away to sea, and therefore, as the 
boy thought so much of books, he took him out of the 
3 33 



34 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

shop and put him to learn the printing trade with his 
brother, who had a printing office. 

This suited Benjamin very well. He soon learned 
to set type, but he liked most of all to go to the book- 
store, where he got an opportunity to borrow books 
for his evening reading. The quick-witted little fellow 
in time fancied that he could write himself, and he be- 
gan to compose verses, which his brother thought so 
much of that he printed them and sent the young 
poet out to sell his own verses. This made him very 
proud of his talent, until his father laughed at him, 
saying, "Verse makers are likely to be beggars." 

It may be this that caused Benjamin to give up 
poetry and take to prose. His brother printed a 
small newspaper, one of the first in America, and the 
boy began to write small things for it. These he slipped 
under the office door at night, so that no one should 
know who wrote them. He grew very proud again 
when he saw them in print and heard a gentleman in 
the office talk of them as very good. 

Printing a newspaper was not always a pleasant 
thing in those days. Something James Franklin put 
in his paper made the governor so angry that he sent 
him to prison for a month. While he was in jail 
Benjamin got out the paper and printed some sharp 
things which seem to have made the governor more 
angry than ever, for when James Franklin was let out 
of prison he was forbidden to publish a newspaper 
any longer. 

James got around this by publishing the paper in the 
name of Benjamin Franklin. This was another thing 
to make the boy, then only seventeen, proud. It may 
also have made him a little saucy and rather too inde- 
pendent for an apprentice, for after this there were 




HOUSE IN WHICH FRANKLIN WAS BORN 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 35 

many quarrels between the two brothers, and finally 
Benjamin left the office, saying he would not work 
there any longer. 

He tried to get work in other printing offices in 
Boston, but none of them would have him, as they 
knew that he was apprenticed to his brother. As 
he could get no employment in Boston, he resolved to 
leave there. He had to do it secretly, for by law his 
brother could hold him, so he got some money by 
selling part of his books, and took passage in a sloop 
for New York. There was no work to be had in 
that city, and he next set out for Philadelphia, then 
the largest city in the colonies. 

In his very entertaining autobiography Benjamin 
Franklin has told us all about this part of his life. We 
read there the story of how he crossed New Jersey, 
walking much of the way and going down the Dela- 
ware in a boat. When he reached Philadelphia he was 
in his working clothes, with his very small baggage 
stuffed into his pockets. He walked up the street, 
munching at some rolls of bread he had bought at a 
baker's shop and gazing about curiously at the Quaker 
city. A girl named Deborah Read, standing at the 
door of her father's shop, laughed to see this queer- 
looking boy, with his hands full of bread and his 
pockets full of clothing. She got to know him better 
in later years, and in the end became his wife, and a 
very good one she made. 

All this is of interest, as dealing with the early life 
of a very remarkable man. That he was not a com- 
mon boy may be seen by what he did in his brother's 
office before he was seventeen years of age. The 
remainder of Franklin's autobiography is full of inter- 
esting matter and shows us that from the start he 



36 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

was a leader of men and a starter of new things. 
But we cannot go into the details of these, as his life 
is full of more important matter, about which some- 
thing must be said. 

The runaway printer's apprentice was not long in 
finding work to do in Philadelphia. He was an excel- 
lent type-setter, and had read so much and had such a 
fund of information that he was very useful in a print- 
ing office. 

He was only a year in Philadelphia when the gover- 
nor of Pennsylvania, seeing how bright and able he 
was, promised to help him set up a shop of his own, and 
he took ship for England to buy type and other mate- 
rials for this purpose. But the money promised him 
did not come, and he had to go to work as a printer in 
London, where he stayed for more than a year. The 
governor had treated him very badly, but in 1729, 
when he was twenty-three years old, some friends 
helped him to start in business in Philadelphia and to 
buy out a newspaper. The next year he married 
Deborah Read. 

Franklin's paper, The Pennsylvania Gazette, was 
soon popular and profitable, and his own writings in it 
were much appreciated. In a few years he began to 
publish an almanac, put out under the name of Richard 
Saunders. It became known as " Poor Richard's Al- 
manac," and was full of useful facts and clever hints 
and bright sayings, telling people how to live frugally. 
It was a sort of book of proverbs, and of shrewd 
common sense, and had a multitude of readers for 
many years. 

Young as he was, Franklin was wide awake to all 
that was going on, and was well up in literature. He 
was a friend of the brightest people in the city, and 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 37 

formed a number of them into a social and literary 
club called the Junto. Simplicity and common sense 
marked all the doings of the club, for Franklin was 
its leader and there was never a man of better judg- 
ment. It kept together for forty years, and out of it 
grew the American Philosophical Society, which still 
stands high among scientific bodies. And the small col- 
lection of books made by the members was the begin- 
ning of the noble Philadelphia Library, the first sub- 
scription library in America. 

These were two of the things which Franklin started, 
but they were not all. He had his eyes on everything, 
and there was no public movement in which he did not 
take part. He laid the foundation of the University of 
Pennsylvania, he formed the first fire company in the 
city, he was the first to propose street paving, and in 
fact he was the busiest and most alert citizen of 
America's greatest city. Any one who wanted any- 
thing done went to Franklin first of all. 

All this time he was pushing his business and making 
money. He never put on airs or was too proud to do 
honest labor, and might be seen in the street wearing 
a leathern apron, and wheeling goods to his shop in a 
wheelbarrow, not caring who saw him or what they 
might think. 

Benjamin Franklin soon got to be known as some- 
thing more than a mere business man. He became an 
able writer, what he wrote being so full of shrewd 
sense and discretion that it was read all through the 
colonies. In addition there was a quaint simplicity 
about it and a vein of homely and pleasant humor that 
made it very good reading. People read his writings 
with satisfaction to-day, and that is more than can 
be said of the other writers of colonial times. 



38 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

He was much more than a business man and a 
writer ; he was a keen observer of the ways of nature, 
and if he had not been so busy in other ways might 
have made a great figure in science. As it was, he 
made many discoveries of importance. Thus he pointed 
out the course of storms over the American continent, 
he studied the course and character of the Gulf Stream, 
and he investigated the powers of the different colors 
in absorbing the heat of the sun. 

But his greatest service to science was in the field 
of electricity. This was then a very young science, 
and people knew hardly anything about it. No one, 
for instance, knew that lightning had anything to 
do with electricity, though some suspected it. Franklin, 
in his practical way, set himself to find out, and he 
did it in a very simple manner. He raised a kite 
into the clouds during a thunder-storm, and when 
a current of electricity came down the string and a 
spark flew from a key at the end to his knuckles he 
was a very happy man, for he knew that he had made a 
great discovery. 

His experiment was talked of and repeated all over 
Europe and made him a famous man. One man tried 
it in Russia and brought down so much of the lightning 
that he was killed by the stroke. But FrankHn was 
quite satisfied with his first trial, and set himself at 
work to make his discovery of use to mankind. He 
proposed that buildings should be protected by light- 
ning rods, to carry the electric charge to the earth, and 
this is one of his practical ideas that are still in use. 

One might think that Benjamin Franklin, with his 
business, and his newspaper, and his looking after the 
affairs of the city, and his studies in science, and 
his literary labors and social duties, had quite enough 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 39 

to occupy his time, but he found leisure to do many 
other things. He was interested in all the affairs of the 
colonies, and became so active in them that he made 
himself one of the greatest public men of the time. 
The shrewd common sense and broad ideas which he 
applied in his business were also applied in public 
affairs and proved as useful in one as in the other. 

In 1736 he was appointed clerk of the Pennsylvania 
Assembly, in 1737 was made postmaster of Penn- 
sylvania, and some years later was appointed post- 
master general of all the colonies. Soon after he was 
made clerk he was elected a member of the Assembly, 
which then met in Philadelphia, and later was one 
of the commissioners sent to treat with the Penn- 
sylvania Indians. 

A very important event in his life took place in 1754, 
when there was great danger of war with France. A 
congress of deputies from the colonies was held at 
Albany to treat with the chiefs of the Iroquois Indians 
of New York. Pennsylvania sent Franklin as its most 
important man. What he did was to propose a plan 
for the union of all the colonies for mutual defence. 
If they were united, he said, they could take care of 
themselves and would not need troops from Europe. 
It was the first step taken towards an American Union. 

Franklin, in his quaint way, illustrated the position 
of the colonies by the figure of a snake broken up 
into thirteen sections. He wished to make them see 
that a whole snake was much stronger than one cut 
up into thirteen bits, each acting for itself, and that 
a whole union would be the same. His plan was 
rejected by the congress, whose members were jealous 
for their several colonies. It was also rejected by the 
British government, which did not want the colonies 



40 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

to become united and powerful. Franklin was much 
disappointed, for he felt they were all making a mis- 
take. Thus this first step towards a union in America 
fell through. 

Franklin was now recognized as the ablest statesman 
in the colonies, and during the remainder of his life he 
was kept busy in the public service. When General 
Braddock wanted wagons for his army and could not 
get them in Virginia, Franklin obtained them for him 
from the Pennsylvania farmers, promising to pay for 
them himself if they were lost. The farmers were 
more ready to trust him than the English general. 
In 1757 he was sent to England by Pennsylvania to 
try to make the sons of William Penn pay their 
share of the tax for the war with the French and In- 
dians, then going on. This was a very dififerent visit 
from that of some thirty years before, when he went 
to London as a boy to buy type. He was now in a 
position to deal with the great men of England, and 
succeeded in making the Penns do their duty. Seven 
years later he was sent back to England, this time by 
all the colonies, to protest against the taxes that 
were being laid upon Americans. He stayed there 
over ten years, doing all he could to have the unjust 
taxes repealed, and before he came back the battle of 
Lexington had been fought and the whole country 
was in a wild fever of excitement. 

A man of Franklin's ability was wanted now. While 
brave men were needed in the army, wise men were 
needed in the councils, and the day after he landed, 
on May 6, 1775, he was chosen as a member of the 
Continental Congress. Pennsylvania fully recognized 
the excellent work he had done in Europe, and in this 
way rewarded him for it. 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 41 

The next year he was one of the famous committee 
of five to prepare the Declaration of Independence, 
and soon after was one of the noble fifty-four who 
risked their lives and all they owned by signing this 
great paper. When one of the members said after the 
Declaration had been signed, *' Now we must all hang 
together," Franklin replied, with his ready wit, " Yes, 
or we will surely all hang separately." 

Franklin made himself active and prominent in the 
Congress, as he did in everything in which he was 
concerned. His plan to unite the colonies in 1754 had 
been defeated, but he helped to unite them now by 
drafting the form of union that was called the Articles 
of Confederation. He was made the first Postmaster 
General of the Confederation ; he visited Washington's 
camp and consulted with him upon ways and means ; 
he went to Canada to see if the people there would 
join the colonies; he worked on important committees, 
and his influence was felt in everything that was done. 

But the great ability of Dr. Franklin, as he was 
now called, was best recognized when, near the close 
of 1776, he was sent to France with the hope of gain- 
ing its support in the war with England. He was now 
seventy years old, and was looked upon as one of the 
foremost people in the world. He had won great fame 
both as a scientist and as a statesman, and when he 
appeared in Paris he was greeted with a delight and 
enthusiasm enough to turn the head of many men. 

His simple ways and quaint American manners 
charmed the French. Though the great University of 
Oxford had made him a Doctor of Laws, though he 
was renowned for his learning, his inventions, his dis- 
coveries in science, his homely proverbial wisdom, his 
ability as a statesman, he was only a plain colonist in 



42 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

his dress and manners and won esteem wherever he 
went. He completely won over the people to favor 
the American cause, but the government held back 
from openly aiding the colonists, though it secretly 
helped them with money. It was not till 1778, after 
the capture of Burgoyne's whole army, that a treaty 
was signed and France sent soldiers and ships to the 
aid of the Americans. 

Franklin stayed in Paris, working in a dozen ways 
for the good of his countrymen. Among other things, 
he helped to fit out the fleet of vessels with which 
Paul Jones won his great naval victory. In 1783 he 
was one of the commissioners to make peace with 
England, and signed the treaty which gave liberty to 
the United States. 

It was 1785 when Franklin returned from France. 
He was then in the eightieth year of his age, and the 
infirmities of old age were telling upon him. His 
reception in America was enthusiastic. Even Wash- 
ington was not regarded with more honor and esteem. 
These two men, the one in war, the other in the council 
chamber, had been the leaders in gaining liberty for 
the colonies, and both were looked up to as America's 
greatest men. 

Franklin had barely landed when he was elected 
President of Pennsylvania, and he filled this office for 
three years. While he was president it became very 
evident that the Articles of Confederation were too 
weak to hold the States together, and a convention was 
called to form a stronger union. Franklin, as may 
well be imagined, was elected a member of this con- 
vention, and he took a leading part in forming the 
Constitution of the United States. Thus he aided in 
completing the work which he had begun in Albany 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 43 

in 1754. The broken sections of the snake were 
at length firmly united, and a sound union was formed. 

This work done, Franklin retired from public life. 
He had now passed the age for active service, and two 
years later, on the 17th of April, 1790, the wise old 
sage passed away, in the eighty-fifth year of his life. 

It would be hard to find in history another man who 
became as eminent in various ways. He was equally 
great as a statesman, a scientist, and a practical man 
of affairs, while as a philosopher of homely common 
sense he has rarely had his equal. His writings 
continue to this day to be republished in almost 
every written tongue. They were nearly all produced 
during his years of editorial work, and they con- 
stitute the best and most original literature coming 
to us from colonial times. Finally, he deserves very 
great credit for his services in the cause of American 
liberty, and his persistent efforts in bringing about 
a union of the colonies and the states. 



PATRICK HENRY, THE ORATOR OF 
THE REVOLUTION 

In 1765 there was an important meeting of the 
House of Burgesses of Virginia, as the law-making 
body of that colony was called. They had come 
together to debate upon a great question, that of the 
Stamp Act passed by the British Parliament for the 
taxation of the colonies. Most of the members were 
opposed to it, but they were timid and doubtful, and 
dreadfully afraid of saying or doing something that 
might offend the king. They talked all round the sub- 
ject, but were as afraid to come close to it as if 
it had been a chained wolf. 

They were almost ready to adjourn, with nothing 
done, when a tall and slender young man, a new and 
insignificant member whom few knew, rose in his 
seat and began to speak upon the subject. Some 
of the rich and aristocratic members looked upon 
him with indignation. What did this nobody mean 
in meddling with so weighty a subject as that before 
them, and which they had already fully debated ? But 
their indignation did not trouble the young man. 

He began by offering a series of resolutions, in 
which he maintained that only the Burgesses and the 
Governor had the right to tax the people, and that 
the Stamp Act was contrary to the constitution of 
the colony and therefore was void. This was a 
bold resolution. No one else had dared to go so far. 
It scared many of the members, and a great storm of 
opposition arose, but the young man would not yield. 
44 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 45 

He began to speak and soon there was flowing from 
his Hps a stream of eloquence that took every one by 
surprise. Never had such glowing words been heard 
in that old hall. His force and enthusiasm shook 
the whole Assembly. Finally, wrought up to the 
highest pitch of indignant patriotism, he thundered 
out the memorable words : *' Caesar had his Brutus, 
Charles the First his Cromwell, and George the Third 

" '' Treason ! Treason ! " cried some of the excited 

members, but the orator went on — " may profit by 
their example. If this be treason make the most of it." 
His boldness carried the day; his words were irresist- 
ible ; the resolutions were adopted ; Virginia took a 
decided stand ; and Patrick Henry, the orator, from 
that time took first rank among American speakers. 
A zealous and daring patriot, he had made himself 
a power among the people. 

Who was this man that had dared hurl defiance at 
the king? A few years before he had been looked 
upon as one of the most insignificant of men, a failure 
in everything he undertook, an awkward, ill-dressed, 
slovenly, lazy fellow, who could not even speak the 
king's English correctly. He was little better than 
a tavern lounger, most of his time being spent in 
hunting and fishing, in playing the flute and violin, and 
in telling amusing stories. He was an adept in the 
latter and made himself popular among the common 
people. 

He had tried farming and failed. He had made 
a pretense of studying law, and gained admittance 
to the bar, though his legal knowledge was very 
slight. Having almost nothing to do in the law, he 
spent most of his time helping about the tavern at 
Hanover Court-House, kept by his father-in-law, who 



46 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

supported him and his family, for he had married early, 
with little means of keeping his wife. 

One day there came up a case in court which all 
of the leading lawyers had refused. It was called 
the " Parsons' Cause," and had to do with the claim 
of the ministers of the Established Church to collect 
dues from all the people, whatever their religious faith. 
A refusal to pay these had brought on the suit. The 
parsons had engaged one of the ablest lawyers of the 
county town on their side, and none of the lawyers 
seemed willing to take the opposite side. 

What was the surprise of the people when the story 
went around that Patrick Henry had offered him- 
self on the defendants* side! His taking up the case 
was a joke to most of them, and a general burst of 
laughter followed the news. What did this fellow 
know about the law ? He was a good talker, no doubt, 
in his low Virginia dialect, but what kind of a show 
would he make in pleading a case before a learned 
judge! The case of the people seemed desperate 
indeed when intrusted to such hands as these. 

When the young lawyer appeared in court smiles 
went round among the lawyers and the audience. 
The idea of this awkward, backward, slovenly, un- 
trained man attempting to handle such an important 
case ! It seemed utterly absurd, and the opposing 
lawyers felt that they would make short work of 
him. They had the law on their side, their plaintiffs' 
case was a good one, their opponent was a mounte- 
bank, the defendants would be made to pay. 

It is likely enough that Patrick Henry felt much the 
same way. His powers had never been tried except 
before a bar-room audience, and he could not have had 
much confidence in them. Doubtless he would have 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 47 

been glad enough, now it was too late, to get out 
of the court and back in the friendly tavern of his 
father-in-law. 

When he rose to speak he faltered and hesitated. 
It looked as if he would break down utterly. But he 
had spoken before his friends ; he was not quite a 
tyro in oratory; as he went on his timidity vanished 
and his confidence returned. He warmed up to his 
subject and a change seemed to come over him. His 
form straightened, his face filled out, his eyes blazed, 
the words poured from his mouth, clear, forcible 
sentences, that carried everybody away with admira- 
tion and astonishment, came from his lips. There was 
not much statute law in what Patrick Henry said, but 
there was much of the eternal principles of right and 
justice. What right in equity had these plaintiffs to 
make the people pay for what they did not want and 
what they refused to accept? The argument was 
masterly and irresistible. It was poured forth in a 
flood of burning eloquence. The plaintiffs could not 
bear the storm of his accusations. They left the 
court in confusion. The specious plea of the oppos- 
ing lawyers was quite overslaughed. The jury, 
carried away by his argument, returned the plaintiffs 
a verdict of one penny damages ; and the people, 
filled with enthusiasm, lifted the young advocate on 
their shoulders and carried him out of the court-house 
in triumph. 

Patrick Henry was a made man. He no longer had 
to lounge in his office waiting for business. Plenty of 
it came to him. He set himself for the first time to 
an earnest study of the law, he improved his dialect 
and his command of language, the dormant powers of 
his mind rapidly unfolded, and two years after plead- 



48 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

ing his first case he was elected a member of the 
House of Burgesses. We have seen how, in this 
body, he '' set the ball of the Revolution rolling." 

The idle tavern orator suddenly found himself 
launched into greatness. With all his careless habits 
and rural manners, he was a man of honor and integ- 
rity. Those who knew him respected him. For me 
first time he had learned what was in him, and he 
worked hard to make the best of his powers. Not 
many years passed after that great scene in the 
country court before Patrick Henry was transformed 
into a new man, one of culture and learning and of 
extraordinary powers of oratory. 

It was the time for such a man to make his force felt. 
The country was in a critical state. The people were 
on all sides demanding their rights, and would soon 
be demanding their liberty. Excitement spread every- 
where. Fearless leaders were needed, men full of the 
spirit of patriotism. Patrick Henry had shown that he 
was both. In his spirit-stirring oration before the 
House of Burgesses he had put himself on record for 
all time. His defiance of the king stamped him as a 
warrior who had thrown his shield away and thence- 
forward would fight only with the sword. 

The patriot leaders welcomed him. He worked with 
Thomas Jefferson and others upon the Committee of 
Correspondence, which sought to spread the story 
of political events through the colonies. The Virginia 
Assemblies which were broken up by the governor and 
called together again by the people welcomed him as a 
member. He was sent to Philadelphia as a member of 
the First Continental Congress, and his voice was 
eloquently heard in that body. In fact, he became one 
of the most active and ardent of the American patriots. 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 49 

Of Patrick Henry's early speeches we know nothing 
beyond that intense blaze of eloquence with which he 
electrified the House of Burgesses. The first speech of 
his on record was that noble one given before the 
convention held at Richmond in March, 1775. But this 
was an effort almost without a parallel in the annals 
of oratory. He had presented resolutions before the 
convention in favor of an open appeal to arms. To 
this the more timid spirits made strong opposition. 
The fight at Lexington had not yet taken place, but 
Henry's prophetic gaze saw it coming. In a burst of 
flaming eloquence he laid bare the tyranny of Par- 
liament and king, declared that there was nothing left 
but to fight, and ended with an outburst thrilling in its 
force and intensity : 

" There is no retreat but in submission and slavery ! 
Our chains are forged ! Their clanking may be heard 
on the plains of Boston ! The war is inevitable — and 
let it come ! I repeat, sir, let it come ! It is in vain 
to extenuate the matter ! Gentlemen may cry, Peace, 
peace, — but there is no peace ! The war is actually 
begun ! The next gale that sweeps from the north 
will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms ! 
Our brethren are already in the field ! Why stand 
we here idle ? What is it that gentlemen wish ? What 
would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, 
as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? 
Forbid it, Almighty God ! I know not what course 
others may take ; but as for me, give me liberty or 
give me death !" 

Where was the idle fisher and fiddler, who had 

amused himself in telling stories to tavern loungers? 

Was this the man, this burning orator, whose voice 

was capable of moving great audiences like a cyclone, 

4 



50 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

and the echo of whose words still thrills our hearts? 
Certainly in the career of Patrick Henry we have a 
remarkable example of mental evolution. He was 
asleep in the early days, an idling dreamer. When he 
awoke he made the world rock with his voice. 

As for Virginia, it listened to his fervid appeal, and 
when the news of Lexington reached its soil its sons 
were ready to spring to arms. Henry helped to gather 
a force of ardent patriots and led them to prevent the 
royal governor from carrying away the military stores 
of the state. He was elected Governor of Virginia 
in 1776, and held the office till 1779, actively aiding 
the popular cause. He was Governor again in 1784 
and 1785. 

In 1788, when the Federal Constitution had been 
formed and the States were called upon to adopt it, 
Henry, as a member of the Virginia Convention, ap- 
peared in a new role. He was bitterly opposed to the 
Constitution, which he said had " an awful squinting 
towards monarchy," and he opposed its adoption in a 
number of speeches of extraordinary eloquence. For- 
tunately he did not succeed, the demand for a stronger 
Union being too great for even his powers of oratory. 

He died June 6, 1799, with the reputation of being 
the greatest of American orators. John Randolph 
of Roanoke, himself one of Virginia's famous orators, 
has said that Patrick Henry was Shakespeare and 
Garrick in one, with their genius applied to the actual 
business of life. 



SAMUEL ADAMS, THE FATHER OF 
AMERICAN LIBERTY 

From 1760 to 1775 Boston was the hotbed of resist- 
ance to British oppression. George III., furious at the 
rebellious spirit of his unruly subjects beyond the seas, 
laid his hand on that unquiet city with crushing weight, 
while a stalwart group of patriots resisted and defied 
the efforts of their oppressors. At the head of these 
was a daring son of the soil named Samuel Adams, 
the man who had more to do in inspiring the minds of 
the people with the spirit of independence than any 
other man in the colonies. It has been truly said that 
if the title of Father of America belongs to any one 
man Samuel Adams was the man. 

It was he that led in all the movements against 
" taxation," and he was ever earnest in efforts to keep 
the spirit of resistance alive. Poor though he was, 
he could not be bought. Efforts to bribe him to desert 
the cause of liberty were made, but they only served 
to make him more determined still. 

Mather Byles, a Tory clergyman of Boston, one 
day said to him with insidious pleasantry : " Come, 
friend Samuel, let us relinquish republican phantoms 
and attend to our fields." 

" Very well," said stalwart Sam, to give him his 
familiar title, " you attend to the planting of liberty and 
I will grub up the taxes. Thus we shall both have 
pleasant places." 

Adams was an educated man. Born in 1722, he 
graduated from Harvard College in 1740. After- 

51 



52 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

wards, when he took the degree of master of arts, his 
thesis showed the prevailing trend of his thoughts. 
He chose the question, '' Whether it be lawful to resist 
the supreme magistrate if the commonwealth cannot 
otherwise be preserved?" We need not say which side 
of the question he argued for. 

Adams engaged in business, but did not succeed. 
He was afterwards collector of taxes in Boston. He 
was elected to the Assembly of Massachusetts in 1765 
and remained there nine years, winning great influence 
by his courage, talents, and energy. Before this he 
had gained a reputation as a political writer. He was 
not a great orator, but he was a bold and daring one, 
and early became a leader of the people. At the very 
first whisper of opposition to the designs of the king 
Adams was in the field, ready and eager to act when- 
ever occasion served, a fervid, active, independent 
spirit, knowing what to do and how to do it, and 
ready to give his services and his life in the cause of 
his country. 

Such a man was Sam Adams, Boston's popular 
leader. John Adams, his cousin, referring to the 
patriots, wrote of him as early as 1765: "Adams, I 
believe, has the most thorough understanding of liberty 
and her resources in the temper and character of the 
people, though not in the law and constitution, as well 
as the most habitual radical love of it, of any of them." 

It was this radical love of liberty that made him a 
thorn in the side of George HI. and his myrmidons. 
No sooner was a party formed opposed to the British 
yoke than Adams came to the front as its leader. In 
1764, ten years before the Revolution, we hear his 
voice protesting in the name of Boston and all America 
against the plan for taxing the colonies. In the words 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 53 

of John Adams, he was '' always for softness, prudence, 
and dehcacy where they will do, but stanch and stiff 
and strict and rigid and inflexible in the cause." 

It was Adams who in 1765 suggested the idea of a 
Colonial Congress, and who afterwards became a 
strong advocate of the Continental Congress. As 
events became more critical, he became more resolute 
and outspoken. At the time of the " Boston Massacre " 
he was spokesman of the committee that demanded that 
the troops should be removed from Boston, and it was 
his boldness that forced them out. 

The most dramatic event in his life occurred on that 
memorable night of December 16, 1773, when the 
ships lay in Boston harbor laden with the tea which 
the king and his advisers were seeking to force on the 
Americans. That night a great town-meeting was held 
at Faneuil Hall, with Adams as one of its principal 
speakers. The hour advanced, the efforts to induce 
the authorities to remove the tea-ships peacefully had 
failed, it was known that the tea would be forcibly 
landed in the morning. Compromise, persuasion, had 
failed. Action was demanded. Adams rose to his feet 
and said, " This meeting can do nothing more to save 
the country." 

Were these words a prearranged signal ? It seemed 
so. Scarcely were they spoken when a shrill war- 
whoop was heard in the street, and a party of men 
disguised as Indians and armed with hatchets rushed 
impetuously past, seeking the wharves. Here they 
boarded the ships, carried the tea-chests from the hold, 
broke them open with their hatchets, and poured the 
tea into the harbor. It was the famous " Boston tea- 
party," which did more than any one thing besides to 
speedily bring on the Revolution. 



54 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

This was only one of his acts. '' Step by step, inch 
by inch, he fought the enemies of Uberty during the 
dark hours before the Revolution." On that dark 
night in April, 1775, when the British in Boston were 
plotting to send out a force of soldiers to seize the 
stores at Concord, they had another purpose in view. 
Samuel Adams and John Hancock were then in the 
village of Lexington, whither they had fled from 
arrest, and General Gage was as eager to lay hands 
on these patriot leaders as upon the Concord stores. 
But before the soldiers reached Lexington the birds 
had flown. Paul Revere had ridden through that fate- 
ful night, roused them from sleep, and warned them 
of the coming troops. 

To this day the house in which they slept that night 
is preserved as a memorial of American liberty, and 
on the village green near by stands a statue which 
marks the spot where the first British shots were fired 
and the first patriots fell. The beginning of the 
struggle for liberty dates from that night and the day 
that followed. 

Adams was elected to the First Continental Congress 
in 1774, and was one of the two popular leaders ex- 
cepted from the general pardon offered by the British 
government in June, 1775. He was one of the two who 
had sinned beyond forgiveness. Yet at first, in the 
Continental Congress, he spoke in favor of a peaceful 
settlement of the difficulty with England. This mood 
of softness did not last. Later, when some members 
of the Congress grew hopeless of success, Adams 
ardently exclaimed : " I should advise persisting in our 
struggle for liberty though it were revealed from 
Heaven that ninety-nine would perish and only one 
of a hundred were to survive and retain his liberty. 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 55 

One such freeman must possess more virtue and enjoy 
more happiness than a hundred slaves, and his children 
may have what he has so nobly preserved." 

When the Declaration was prepared he was one of 
the most ready to sign it, and his signing was the 
occasion for the delivery of the only example of his 
eloquence which we possess. He closed with the 
words : '' For my own part, I ask no greater blessing 
than to share the common danger and the common 
glory. If I have a wish dearer to my soul than that 
my ashes may be mingled with those of a Warren and 
a Montgomery, it is that these American States may 
never cease to be free and independent." 

Adams continued in Congress until after the sur- 
render of Yorktown, working so diligently and with 
such judgment and order that some have called him 
" the helmsman of the Revolution." He withdrew 
after liberty had been gained, and afterwards helped to 
form the constitution of Massachusetts, was a senator 
of that State, its Lieutenant-Governor from 1789 to 
1794, and Governor from 1795 to 1797. Always poor, 
he died so in 1803. John Adams has said of him as a 
speaker and writer, that in his works may be found 
" specimens of a nervous simplicity of reasoning and 
eloquence that have never been rivalled in America." 



THOMAS JEFFERSON, AUTHOR OF THE 
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 

The name of Thomas Jefferson always calls up to 
us a vision of the Declaration of Independence, that 
famous state paper which has never been surpassed in 
this or any country. Jefferson was its author, and 
his name will ever remain associated with it. Elected 
to the Continental Congress, he took his seat in that 
body on the day when news reached Philadelphia of 
the battle of Bunker Hill and of the splendid fighting 
of the " rebel " troops. Washington was then on his 
way to Boston to take command of the army, and the 
hope of liberty burned high in the people's hearts. 

Eight months later, when the British army sailed 
away from Boston and left it to the Continentals, this 
hope burned still stronger, and men began to feel that 
it was time to cut loose for good and all from British 
rule and sail onward in a ship of independence of their 
own. So a resolution in favor of such a course was 
offered in Congress, and five men, Thomas Jefferson, 
John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and 
Robert R. Livingston, were chosen to draft a declara- 
tion to be given to the world. 

This declaration was to show why and on what 
grounds the American colonies claimed freedom, and 
Thomas Jefferson was chosen by his four fellow mem- 
bers to write it. He was known by them to be an able 
writer on such subjects, and two years before he 
had published "A Summary View of the Rights of 

56 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 57 

British America," which had attracted great attention 
and was full of the sentiments they wished. 

So Jefferson was selected to write the paper, and 
did so. He did it so well that his fellow members felt 
more like clapping him on the back than making 
changes in it. Hardly a word was rewritten, either 
by the committee or by Congress, and it was quickly 
passed and signed, as America's declaration to the 
world. It is to-day regarded as one of the ablest docu- 
ments ever written, and as the most important state 
paper in modern political history, and it will make the 
name of Thomas Jefferson famous for many centuries 
to come. 

On a Virginia plantation near the present city of 
Charlottesville, Thomas Jefferson was born in the year 
1743. Not far away rose the Blue Ridge Mountains, 
and broad forests spread for miles around, for the 
country was then very thinly settled. Here the young 
Virginian grew up, learning to ride, swim, and shoot, 
and reading every book he could get. He was fond of 
music, too, and spent many hours learning to play on 
the violin. He was a tall, straight, slender boy, with 
reddish hair ; no beauty, but a pleasant-looking lad. 

At seventeen he entered William and Mary College, 
studied like a young Trojan, graduated in two years, 
and then began to study law as diligently. When ad- 
mitted to the bar he quickly won a place among the 
foremost lawyers of the time. 

The young lawyer soon became active in politics. 
These were the days of the Stamp Act and the Tea 
Tax, and America held no more ardent patriot than 
our bright youthful Virginian. A fine-looking fellow 
he had then grown to be, over six feet tall, with square, 
well-cut features, ruddy skin, and a face full of intel- 



58 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

ligence. He had a quick, positive way of speaking and 
paid little heed to the over-formal politeness of the day, 
characteristics that made him prominent. A rigid 
republican, he did not even like the formality of " Mr." 
Anything like a title displeased him. 

He believed in the equality of all men, and was 
bitterly opposed to slavery. He said, " I tremble for 
my country when I remember that God is just, for 
this is politically and morally wrong." 

Jefferson was no orator. He never made a formal 
speech in his life. But he was a deep and able thinker, 
an adept with the pen, and he soon ranked with the 
ablest political leaders of the age. He took an active 
part in all the movements of that period of excitement, 
was seen in all the conventions and congresses called, 
was always active, zealous, and capable, and crowned 
his work at length with the noble Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, the writing of which formed the high-water 
mark of his life. 

Jefferson soon left Congress to enter the legislature 
of his native State. Descended from the best stock of 
Virginia, and as well born as its greatest aristocrat, 
he was still a democrat to the core. He did not believe 
in the privileges claimed by the proud old families. 
Liberty and equality were his watchwords. He had 
put them in the Declaration, and he worked for them in 
his State. He fought for religious freedom till he got 
it, and he stopped the importation of slaves. He also 
drew up an excellent plan for the education of all the 
children of Virginia. If he could, he would have put 
everybody on the same plane and have them all start 
equal in life. 

When Patrick Henry gave up the office of Governor 
Jefferson succeeded him. But he was not a military 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 59 

man and was not suited to this office in time of war, 
and at the end of his term he decUned to serve again 
and was succeeded by a soldier, General Nelson, of 
Yorktown. But in 1783, when the treaty of peace 
with Great Britain was made, he had the honor of 
reporting it to Congress, and thus completed the work 
he had begun with the Declaration of Independence 
seven years before. It must have been a great joy to 
him to proclaim that the world now acknowledged this 
independence. 

Let us here give some anecdotes which are told of 
Jefferson. In 1770, when he was practicing law, his 
old home at Shadwell took fire and burned down. 
When word was brought him of it his first thought 
was for his favorite books, and he eagerly asked if they 
had been saved. 

" No, massa," said the ebony servitor. " Dey is burned 
up; but de fire didn't git yo' fiddle. We sabed dat." 

To the simple-minded negro a fiddle was of more 
account than a whole library of books. 

The burning of the old Jefferson mansion was a 
serious loss. A new one had to be built, and for it 
he chose the top of a forest-covered hill near by, 
five hundred and eighty feet high, on the side of 
which w^as a favorite spot where he had loved to sit 
and read and converse with his special college friend. 
Here, under a great oak, this friend, Dabney Carr, 
was afterwards buried, for the two had made a compact 
that he who died first should have his grave under 
their favorite oak. Many years later Jefferson was 
buried on the same spot beside his old friend. 

The hill was named Monticello, or " Little Moun- 
tain." Jefferson had its broad, round top leveled 
off, and he built there a handsome manor-house, of his 



6o HEROES OF PROGRESS 

own designing, which has since been known as Monti- 
cello. It is to-day a place of pilgrimage for patriotic 
Americans. A few miles away stands the University 
of Virginia, of which he was the founder. Not far 
away is the old Virginian town of Charlottesville. 

An interesting story is told of how, in 1772, Jeffer- 
son brought his young wife home to this newly finished 
mansion. They had more than a hundred miles to 
travel in midwinter, with no easier way of doing it 
than in a two-horse carriage. At least, the only easier 
way of traveling in those days would have been to 
put more horses to their carriage. 

Much of the way ran through the forest, the trees 
often meeting over the road. As they went on it began 
to snow, and long before their home was reached a 
thick white carpet covered the ground. Night had 
fallen and the hour was late when the high hill was 
reached and they began to climb the steep roadway up 
its side to the house on the summit. As they drew near 
the darkness was deep and not a light to be seen. The 
servants, not expecting their master and mistress at 
that hour, were all asleep in their cabins, and there 
was not a fire in the house. 

A gloomy and chilly welcome was that which Monti- 
cello gave to its young mistress. Fortunately, they 
were at that age when ill hap does not weigh heavy 
and discomfort can be easily borne. The shivering pair 
had to go straight to bed to keep from freezing. The 
next morning the fires were all blazing, the house was 
bright and cheerful, they were able to laugh at their 
predicament of the night before, and they began what 
was to be a long and happy life in their mountain 
home. 

There is another story told of Monticello that might 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 6i 

have led to a more tragic ending. Years later, when the 
Revolutionary war was nearing its end and the British 
troops had invaded Virginia, there came with them 
Colonel Tarleton, the daring cavalry leader who had 
been fighting with Morgan and Marion and other pa- 
triot leaders in the South. Jefferson was then at Monti- 
cello, and the Legislature of Virginia was in session at 
Charlottesville, a few miles away. It seemed to Tarle- 
ton a good chance to catch all the Virginia leaders in 
one nest. 

While the family at Monticello were at breakfast, 
up the hillside came a frightened horseman at full 
speed. When he reached the door he shouted : " The 
British are coming ! Fly for your lives ! Tarleton will 
soon be here with his dragoons !" 

When the man was questioned he told Jefferson that 
Tarleton, with two hundred and fifty men, had galloped 
into Louisa, twenty miles away, at midnight. The 
family was in a panic, but Jefferson coolly told them to 
finish their breakfast, as there was time enough. He 
then sent the family away to a place of safety, but 
stayed behind to gather certain precious papers. 

Soon came another messenger, shouting that the 
British were coming up the mountain. Jefferson 
listened. No sounds of hoofs could be heard. He rode 
to a place where he could look down on Charlottes- 
ville. All was quite and peaceful there. Deeming it 
another false alarm, he turned back, intending to get 
more of his papers. 

As he did so he saw that his sword was missing, 
having fallen from the scabbard. He turned to search 
for it, and, looking down on Charlottesville again, 
saw that a great change had taken place in that little 
borough. Armed horsemen filled its streets. He could 



62 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

see some of them already on the road to Monticello, 
galloping at full speed. Jefferson put spurs to his 
horse and rode swiftly away. His fallen sword had 
saved him from capture. A brief delay longer and 
the author of the Declaration would have been a pris- 
oner in British hands. 

Another story is told of this raid which, if true, goes 
to show how faithful to their masters were the old 
Virginian slaves. Two of them, Martin and Ccesar, 
were trying to save the silver plate of the house by 
hiding it in a secret place closed by a trap-door. Caesar 
entered the hole, and Martin handed him down the 
plate. They had not finished when they heard the 
British bursting into the house. Martin quickly closed 
the trap, and the faithful Caesar lay without a sound in 
the dark hole until the British were gone. He was a 
sorry figure when he was drawn out. 

To go back now to history, we may say that Jeffer- 
son went to Congress in 1783, and in 1784 was sent 
abroad as Minister to France from the young republic. 
He remained five years in France, so that he was not 
home at the time of the making of the Constitution. 
But those were exciting days in France. The great 
French Revolution was at hand, and everybody was 
talking of liberty and the rights of man. What he saw 
and heard there made him a greater lover of human 
rights than ever. He was active in other ways. A 
practical farmer, he sent home seeds, plants, and every- 
thing which he thought would be of use to grow in 
American fields and gardens. 

He came home in 1789 to find that Washington had 
been made President and had chosen him for Secretary 
of State. It was an honor he did not want, but the 
President would not let him off, for he was anxious 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 63 

to have the ablest men in the country in his Cabinet. 
Jefferson was Secretary of State for five years, and 
then he resigned. There had been quarrels between him 
and Alexander Hamilton, Secretarv of the Treasurv. 
Hamilton was a strong aristocrat, Jefferson a strong 
democrat, and the two men could not agree. At last, 
in 1794, Jefferson, tired of the constant disputes, gave 
it up and went home to Monticello. 

Like Washington, he was fond of home life and 
farming. He enjoyed landscape gardening and arch- 
itecture, and was never more happy than when he 
was adding new beauty to his place. He did not 
lack company. Many visitors came to see the great 
statesman, despite the fact that Monticello could be 
reached only by a long and wearisome carriage journey. 

He would have liked to spend his life at Monticello, 
but when Washington gave up the presidency and John 
Adams was elected in his place, Jefferson was chosen 
for Vice-President. So he had to go back again to 
Philadelphia, then the capital of the country, and 
devote himself to public duties. He did not enjoy it 
any more than before, for Adams was hard to get 
along with, and the old bad feeling between him and 
Hamilton was kept up. 

Four years later, in 1800, Jefferson was chosen for 
the highest honor the country had to bestow. He was 
elected President. A new Democratic party had been 
formed, of which he was the leader, and the old 
aristocratic Federal party, of which Hamilton was 
the head, was losing its power. 

Now was the time for the great believer in democ- 
racy and the simple life to show his feeling. He 
hated all pomp and display. Washington, when in- 
augurated, had gone to the Capitol in a carriage 



64 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

drawn by six cream-colored horses. Adams had also 
gone there with pomp and ceremony. Men now looked 
for another grand parade, and great was their surprise 
when they saw a plainly-dressed man, without servant 
or guard, ride up to the Capitol grounds, spring from 
his horse, fasten its bridle to the fence, and walk up 
to the Capitol. This was Thomas Jefferson, the 
great democrat, coming to be inaugurated as President 
of the United States. He wanted the people to see 
that he was a man like themselves, free from all 
pride and ostentation. 

Jefferson was President for eight years. They were 
exciting years, for the great wars of Napoleon were 
going on in Europe, and England and France gave so 
much trouble to America, by interfering with its com- 
m.erce, that it was hard to keep this country from going 
to war with one or the other of them. The people were 
very angry with England for taking sailors out of 
American vessels to serve in their warships, and Jef- 
ferson, who was a man of peace, found this very hard 
to bear. 

The troubles in Europe did one great good for this 
country. France held the great region between the 
Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains, then 
known as Louisiana. Napoleon had taken this region 
from Spain, but he was now much afraid that Eng- 
land, with her strong fleet, would take it from him, 
so he offered to sell it at a small price to the United 
States. Jefferson was glad to purchase it, for he was 
wise enough to see how valuable it would become. 

To-day this great domain is divided into a number 
of states, with millions of people and many thriving 
cities, and what is known as the Louisiana Purchase 
has been celebrated by a splendid World's Fair, held at 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 65 

St. Louis, its principal city. Jefferson's name is as 
fully associated with this great addition to our terri- 
tory as it is with the Declaration of Independence. 

A happy man was Thomas Jefferson in 1809, when, 
his public life ended, he was free from the cares of 
office, and could go home to his family, his books, 
and his farm. The wife he had brought home that 
stormy night had died many years before, but there 
were children in the house, both his own and those 
of his friend Dabney Carr, who had married his sister 
Martha. She was left poor, and Jefferson took her 
home with her six children, bringing them up as 
tenderly as though they were his own. 

He had abundance of company, too. He was so 
hospitable that his house was always full of guests, 
some of whom stayed for months at a time. He was 
so free-handed in this and other ways that in his old 
days he became poor and was forced to sell his precious 
library to save his home. Fortunately, his friends came 
to his aid and money was sent him to pay his debts. 

The end came on the Fourth of July, 1826, exactly 
fifty years from the day the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence was adopted. At noon on that day the great 
patriot breathed his last. It is singular that John 
Adams, who was on the committee with him to prepare 
the Declaration, died on the same day. 



ROBERT MORRIS, THE FINANCIER OF 
THE REVOLUTION 

War is to us a picture, a brilliant show of material 
splendor, a glorious display of daring deeds. We see 
the flash of weapons and the waving of banners. We 
hear the stirring sounds of music and the measured 
beat of marching feet. We read of valiant deeds on 
the fields of battle and of men giving their lives for 
their country's cause, and hearing and seeing all this 
we are too apt to forget what lies behind. 

The bright picture of war has an opposite side, on 
which are painted the dark forms of misery and suffer- 
ing and death in all its terrors. But aside from this 
there is something else that lies behind the show. 
War is costly. We are told that *' money is the sinews 
of war." All the " show and circumstance of glorious 
war " has to be paid for, and the country in which 
we live might not have won its freedom had there not 
been a noble man ready to pay the cost, a man whose 
story every patriot should read. There were three 
men to whom American liberty was chiefly due: 
Washington, the general ; Franklin, the statesman ; 
and Morris, the financier, and without the work of the 
latter, freedom might not have been won. 

Like many others who took part in the Revolution, 
Robert Morris came from England, his native place be- 
ing the city of Liverpool, where he was born in 1734. 
But he was still a young boy when his father brought 
him across the sea, and he grew up to be as true-hearted 
a patriot as any son of the soil. No man did more than 
66 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 67 

he to save the country from ruin and to aid the 
patriot soldiers on the field of battle. 

The city of Philadelphia was his home, and there, 
as he grew up, he showed a marvellous talent for 
business. He began at the age of fifteen in the count- 
ing-house of a firm of Philadelphia merchants, and 
worked with such diligence and ability that at the age 
of twenty he was made a member of the firm. This 
was an excellent beginning for an ambitious boy, and 
we may be sure that he made the most of his oppor- 
tunity. At any rate, the firm thrived after he became 
a member, and he soon began to grow rich. 

Time went on, and troubles came to the country. 
War broke out with the French ; then came the dis- 
putes with England, the stamp tax, the tea tariff, the 
insolent soldiers in Boston, the war spirit in the people. 
All this time Robert Morris was attending to his busi- 
ness with diligence and enterprise and making money 
fast, while everybody praised him as a man of integ- 
rity and uprightness. Willing & Morris was the name 
of the firm. No other firm in Philadelphia, then the 
largest city in the country, did a larger business, so that 
by the time the war with England began Morris was a 
very wealthy man. But it must be remembered that it 
did not take as much money to make wealth in those 
days as it does now. A million dollars counted for as 
much then as a hundred millions do now. 

In the midst of his business Robert Morris never 
forgot the country that had given him a home. He 
was an earnest patriot through all the troubles of the 
time. His firm did a large business with England, 
buying there to sell in America, but in 1765, when the 
Stamp Act was passed, and the colonists vowed they 
would buy no article made in England, Morris sup- 



68 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

ported them in this, though he knew it would be a 
great loss to him. 

When the Revolution began he was looked upon as 
a stanch friend of the country. In 1775 he was elected 
a member of the Continental Congress, and in 1776 he 
was one of those bold patriots who signed the Declara- 
tion of Independence. In his own mind he felt that 
it was too soon for this, and that the members were 
too hasty and had better feel their way. But there it 
was, the work was done, and as a true American 
he put his name to it. In doing this he cut loose from 
all allegiance to England and threw in his lot with the 
land he had made his home. 

Morris was one of the kind of men the young 
country sadly needed. He had great business ability 
and judgment, and as a member of the Committee of 
Ways and Means his knowledge of money matters and 
skill in affairs of finance made him of the greatest 
service to the cause of liberty. 

But this was only through good advice and care- 
ful handling of the funds. The time came when more 
were wanted. The country was poor ; Congress had no 
means of raising money; yet the soldiers in the field 
had to be fed and clothed, even if they were not paid ; 
arms and ammunition had to be supplied, for they 
could not fight without them, and the Treasury at 
times was empty. Paper money was issued, printed 
promises to pay, but there got to be so much of this 
afloat that few were willing to take it. Its value in 
time w^ent down almost to nothing. 

It was then that Robert Morris showed the kind 
of patriot he was. He helped the Government with his 
own money. He borrowed large sums from his friends. 
When people of means were not willing to lend their 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 69 

money to Congress, Morris came to its support, and 
he used the credit of his firm to borrow for its needs. 
The word of Robert Morris was as good as gold, and 
people who would not trust Congress were ready to 
trust him. 

On that brilliant Christmas Day of 1777, when 
Washington turned the tide of the war by the splendid 
victory of his ragged Continentals at Trenton, the army 
chest was empty, there was not a penny to pay the 
troops. The victor could not follow up his success 
without some cash in hand, and he wrote a letter of 
earnest appeal to Robert Morris, who responded nobly. 
" Whatever I can do for the good of the service shall 
be done," he replied, and on New Year's morning he 
went from house to house among his friends in Phil- 
adelphia, raising people from their beds to borrow 
money for the troops in the field. 

In this way $50,000 in hard money was obtained and 
sent to Washington. It saved the army from falling to 
pieces and was a wonderful aid to Washington in 
following up his victory. Morris had a warm admira- 
tion for the grand soldier whom he thus helped, and 
said of him, " He is the greatest man on earth." . 

A strong, large, fine-looking man was Robert 
Morris, active in business, but speculative in disposi- 
tion. There are few anecdotes of his private life, but 
here is one. In his earlier business days he went out 
on several voyages as supercargo on ships of the firm, 
and once, during the war with France, the ship he was 
on was captured and he was taken prisoner. He had 
no money with which to pay ransom. But he knew 
how to do things and secured his release by repairing 
a watch of one of the French officers. 

He was made a member of the Council of Safety in 



70 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

1775, and during the Revolution did valuable service 
on various committees of Congress. In 1778, when 
Lord North offered terms of settlement with the col- 
onies if they would yield to the king, he wrote these 
strong words : " No offer ought to have a hearing for 
one moment unless preceded by acknowledgment of 
our independence. We can never be a happy people 
under their domination." 

During all this time he continued to supply the Gov- 
ernment with money, either his own or that borrowed 
on his credit. When the paper money issued by Con- 
gress grew to be worth little more than rags, Morris 
kept things going by the hard cash of himself and his 
friends. He is said to have raised much more than 
one million dollars in all, with no assurance that he 
would ever get a penny of it back. But he was too 
sincere a patriot to let any such thought as this trouble 
him. 

This was not all. He did his utmost to arrange 
some system under which the necessary funds might be 
raised and the nation gain credit instead of sinking 
into bankruptcy. He wanted a strong central govern- 
ment, with the right to collect the revenues, instead of 
leaving this right to the States, and he got the brilliant 
author Thomas Paine to write in support of this. He 
wished to establish a solid continental system of finance 
which would make Congress more than a mere figure- 
head to the thirteen independent States. 

In 1 78 1 Congress saw that the war could not go 
on unless some very able man should be put over the 
money matters of the country, and Robert Morris was 
the only man anybody thought of for this work, so 
he was appointed Superintendent of Finances. Con- 
gress could not have pleased the people better. Every- 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 71 

body was satisfied with their choice. Many looked 
upon Morris as a sort of magician, who knew how to 
get something from nothing. As for him, he did not 
see his way clear to do anything of the kind, and the 
prospect ahead was not very pleasant. 

It was his duty to look after the funds in the Treas- 
ury and to do his best to add to them. It was a hard 
task. There was very little to look after, and it was 
almost impossible to add anything to it. He appealed 
to the States for money, but grew sick of the delay 
in getting it. Cash came in pennies instead of dollars, 
and his demands and appeals were alike in vain. 

One of the first things he did was to establish the 
Bank of North America, the first bank in the country. 
This was chartered by Congress on the last day of 
the year 1781. Morris lost no time in getting it 
under way, and spared no pains in inducing people of 
wealth to buy its stock and put gold and silver money 
into its vaults. Thomas Paine put $500 of his own 
money in it and used his brilliant pen and his persuasive 
powers to get others to do the same. 

The credit of the bank was soon established, and be- 
fore long Morris was able to help the suffering army. 
During the first six months of the bank's existence he 
loaned the Government $400,000 from it, and $80,000 
more to the State of Pennsylvania. His brilliant plan 
had proved a complete success. 

For three of the most trying years the country ever 
went through in money matters Morris was at the head 
of its finances, working like a giant to help it through. 
He had not only the needs of the army to look after, 
but those of the navy as well, for money was needed 
to fit out vessels and pay the sailors. Even after 
peace came his duties went on. The country was very 



72 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

poor. Congress had no power to collect money from the 
States or to lay taxes of any kind. He resigned at 
length in 1783, worn out with his work and disgusted 
with the doings of Congress and the States. He said : 
" To increase our debts while the prospect of paying 
them diminishes does not consist with my idea of 
integrity." 

Morris did not come out of the war a poor man. He 
was still wealthy, as wealth was regarded in those days. 
He lived in a handsome house, with doors and furniture 
of finely-wrought mahogany, but he was not the man 
to make a grand display. On the banks of the Schuyl- 
kill he built a pleasantly situated country residence 
which was not finished until after 1787. It stood upon 
the bluflF above Fairmount, and was called by him 
" The Hills." It still stands and is now known as the 
Lemon Hill mansion. Here thousands collect in the 
summer season, for near by is a large music pavilion 
where bands play several times weekly. 

Robert Morris did not give up his interest in the 
country in his later years. Twice he served as a mem- 
ber of the Pennsylvania legislature, and he was one 
of those who helped to make the Constitution of the 
United States. When the new government was organ- 
ized, with Washington for President, Morris was asked 
to take the responsible position of Secretary of the 
Treasury. He declined and named Alexander Hamil- 
ton for the difficult post, saying that he was a better 
man in finance than himself. He was elected, however, 
to the United States Senate and served one term in 
the first Senate of the country. 

Morris had given much of his fortune to the country 
and had neglected his business to devote himself to 
poorly paid public duties. But his business capacity 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 73 

remained and after the war he went to work again, 
now engaging in the East India trade. In the year he 
resigned the office of financier he sent the " Empress of 
China " from New York to Canton, this being the 
first American vessel that ever entered that port. He 
marked out a route to China by which the dangerous 
winds that at certain seasons blow over the Pacific 
might be avoided, and to prove that he was right he 
sent a vessel over this route. The voyage proved suc- 
cessful and profitable. 

We have said that Morris was speculative in dis- 
position. He proved this after 1790 by going very 
largely into land speculations, buying a great deal of 
wild land in the western part of New York. He 
bought lands also in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, but 
his investments proved failures, his lands could not 
be sold, and the once wealthy merchant lost all his 
money and fell deeply into debt. 

Before telling the story of his later life there is an 
interesting episode that must be narrated. In 1795 he 
bought the square of land in Philadelphia between 
Chestnut and Walnut and Seventh and Eighth Streets, 
paying for it $50,000. To-day it might take fifty mil- 
lions to purchase it. Here he began to build a large 
house, on such a scale that it came to be known as 
" Morris's Folly." One envious man says of it : "A 
person is just now building at an enormous expense a 
palace in Philadelphia." 

Was it a palace or a folly ? It was probably neither. 
It was built of brick, with light stone trimmings to 
doors and windows, its depth being between 80 and 
100 feet and its width between 40 and 60. According 
to Morris's account, the amount spent on it was only 
$16,370. Begun in 1795, work went on in a slow 



74 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

way until 1800, when it was abandoned unfinished, 
its doors and windows being boarded up. It was 
never finished, and in time was torn down to make 
way for other buildings. 

The only folly in it was that Morris was hopelessly 
in debt when he began to build it. He held many 
square miles of wilderness, but could not pay his debts 
with this. • In those days people could be imprisoned 
for debt, and this was poor Morris's fate. In 1798 he 
was put in prison and remained there for three years 
and a half. -The debts proved against him are said to 
have amounted to $3,000,000. • Great as they were and 
poor as was the country, it has ever since been looked 
upon as a shameful disgrace to the United States that 
its great benefactor should be allowed to suffer from 
poverty and imprisonment in his old age. It is one 
of the dark spots on our banner that can never be 
wiped off. 

Debtors had to pay their own way in prison if 
their creditors did not, and Morris was destitute. 
He wrote at one time, " Starvation stares me in the 
face." Rooms in the prison were high in price, and 
he could not afford a room to himself. He could 
not even buy paper to write on and had to borrow 
it from his fellow prisoners. Washington visited 
him in prison during a visit to Philadelphia in 1798, 
but no one took any steps for his release. A pa- 
thetic story is told about his prison life. He was 
allowed to walk in the prison yard and walked around 
it fifty times a day. To count the number, he carried 
pebbles in his pocket and dropped one at each round. 
It seems, however, that the poor prisoner did not be- 
come careless and despairing, for one who visited him 
said that he was always neat and careful in dress. 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 75 

Morris was adjudged a bankrupt in 1801 and was 
released on August 26 of that year. He was now old 
and poor, his life approaching its end. ' He died in 
Philadelphia, May 8, 1806, a striking example of the 
ingratitude of nations. The country for which he had 
done so much suffered him to languish for years in 
a prison cell, and only one monument of his work 
remains, the Bank of North America, in its early days 
the salvation of the Government, to-day a flourishing 
banking institution of Philadelphia. 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON, THE ARCHI- 
TECT OF AMERICAN FINANCE 

In those dark days before the American Revolution, 
when the colonies were choosing delegates to a con- 
gress to offer their protest to the king, an open-air 
meeting — '' the great meeting in the fields," it was af- 
terwards called — was held in New York to select dele- 
gates for that colony. Speech after speech was made, 
but none of the speakers got to the pith of the matter. 
At length a new speaker appeared on the platform, who 
seemed to be pushed forward by his friends. The 
audience looked at him in surprise. A small, slight, 
boyish fellow, with dark skin and deep-set eyes; what 
could this boy have to say ? 

He had much to say. Faltering and hesitating at 
first, he was soon speaking freely and to the point. He 
laid down clearly the principles involved, strongly 
depicted the oppressions of England, and in a burst 
of fervid eloquence went on to point out the duty of 
the people, to resist to the last drop of their blood. 

" The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rum- 
maged for among old parchments and musty records," 
declared this wonderful boy ; " they are written as with 
a sunbeam in the whole volume of human nature, by 
the hand of Divinity itself, and no mortal power can 
erase or obscure them." 

As he went on, ardent and glowing with youthful 
fire, describing " the waves of rebellion, sparkling with 
fire, and washing back on the shores of England the 
wrecks of her power, her wealth, and her glory," the 

76 



HEROES OF PROGRESS ^^ 

whole audience took fire, and cheer after cheer re- 
sponded to the orator's words. " It is a collegian !" 
they said, as they looked with wonder on the boyish 
speaker. 

A collegian he was, a student at King's College 
(now Columbia University), Alexander Hamilton by 
name. In the College halls he had soared over all his 
fellows in acuteness of reasoning and fervor of elo- 
quence, and it was to their admiration that he owed 
this first public appearance. With it Hamilton began 
his career in the world of affairs, in which he was to 
occupy a marked position during the remaining thirty 
years of his life. 

Alexander Hamilton was a West Indian by birth, 
born in the little island of Nevis, of a Scotch father and 
a French Huguenot mother. This was in 1757. A 
frightful hurricane desolated the Leeward Islands in 
1772, and an account of it was published that attracted 
wide attention by its force and vivid description. The 
surprise was greater when it was found to be the work 
of a boy of fifteen — the same one who at seventeen 
electrified the great audience in New York. 

He was then a counting-house clerk in the island of 
St. Croix, but his relatives thought that so bright a 
boy ought to have a chance for the best education, and 
they raised money and sent him to Boston. From 
there he made his way to New York, entered an excel- 
lent school at Elizabethtown, N. J., and in 1773 was 
admitted to King's College. Here he progressed with 
remarkable rapidity in his classes. He had read and 
written much while in the West Indies, and now de- 
voured every scrap of learning that came to his hands, 
wrote hymns and burlesques, defeated all his fellows 
in the debating hall, was a pious youth who prayed as 



78 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

passionately as he spoke, but among his companions 
was Hvely and gay, ready to take part in all that went 
on. 

The clear-minded young West Indian, though a 
British subject by birth, quickly became infected with 
the spirit of the colonists, cast his lot with them for 
good or bad, and became as ardent a " rebel " as the 
best of them. That speech in the fields was his " com- 
ing out " event. He now took to the pen and answered 
the arguments of the Tory supporters of Great Britain 
so ably that many thought his writings came from some 
of the eminent thinkers of the country. When they 
found who was their author he became famous at once. 

From that time forward Hamilton was active and 
prominent in all the exciting doings of the times. 
Even in college his patriotic fervor led him to organize 
a military corps among his fellow students, who called 
themselves " Hearts of Oak," and wore a green uni- 
form and a leather cap, on which was the motto " Free- 
dom or Death !" With all this he was a busy student, 
an active writer, a frequent speaker, bold, zealous, yet 
cool and self-repressed, often seeking to check the 
patriotic party when it inclined to violence. 

Young, ardent, and patriotic, Hamilton had a strong 
taste for a military life, joined a company of volunteers, 
and in March, 1776, was made the captain of an artil- 
lery company. We are not here interested in his career 
as a soldier, and will only say that he showed such cour- 
age and skill that Washington appointed him his aide- 
de-camp, and took so strong a fancy to him that he 
made him his private secretary. During most of the re- 
mainder of those terrible years of war Hamilton was 
Washington's most intimate friend, adviser, and con- 
fidant, the great general often conferring with and seek- 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 79 

ing the advice of his youthful secretary, whose opin- 
ion on miHtary matters he highly valued. In after 
years he came to value Hamilton for like abilities in 
matters of peace, and remained his warm friend till 
his death. The voluminous correspondence of Wash- 
ington during the war mainly fell upon Hamilton, 
and Troup says of it : " The pen of our country 
was held by Hamilton ; and for dignity of manner, pith 
of matter, and elegance of style, General Washington's 
letters are unrivalled in military annals." 

Of Hamilton's military career we shall only say that 
he took part ably in Washington's principal battles, 
carried one of the British forts at Yorktown, and as a 
reward for his bravery was selected to receive the sur- 
render of one division of Cornwallis's army. The war 
done, he spent some time in Congress, where, as one 
of the members said, *' his winning eloquence was the 
wonder and delight of friend and foe." Resigning 
within a year, he engaged in the practice of law in 
New York. He had given little time to legal study, 
but his quickness and ability were such that he rose at 
once to the first rank in his profession, his forceful 
oratory, his fine powers as a reasoner, his close atten- 
tion to his cases, winning him success from the first. 

Such were the chief features of Hamilton's early 
life. Now we must pay attention to those qualities 
and powers which were displayed in his later life and 
on which his great fame rests. He was born with fine 
political genius and developed an extraordinary ability 
in finance. In college much of his time was given to a 
deep study of political economy, financial systems, and 
such like practical topics. He was diligently preparing 
himself for a career of which he could not then have 
dreamed, 



8o HEROES OF PROGRESS 

All readers of history are aware of the great dif- 
ficulty the young government had to raise money to 
support its army, of the vast sums of paper money 
that were set afloat, and of the little value this came to 
have. The money troubles set Hamilton to the study 
of finance. He wrote on the subject to Robert Morris 
and proposed a financial scheme for the country that 
would combine public with private credit and bring all 
the resources of the people to the aid of the nation. 
His letters had much to do with the founding of the 
Bank of North America, afterwards started by Morris. 
As for the state of the country, he felt bitterly the 
weakness of the Confederation then existing, and 
wrote to James Duane a celebrated letter on the needs 
of the nation, urging the necessity of a new con- 
stitution, his opinion being that " Congress should 
have complete sovereignty in all that relates to war, 
peace, trade, finance, and to the management of foreign 
affairs." This letter, written in 1780, was the first 
step towards the great Constitutional Convention, held 
in Philadelphia in 1787. 

Nothing went on in public affairs in which Hamil- 
ton did not take a hand. He opposed the persecution 
of the Tories, and when a mob in New York sought to 
capture a Tory, Hamilton kept them back by his elo- 
quence until their intended victim escaped. He did 
not believe in slavery and was a member of the Aboli- 
tion Society, of which Benjamin Franklin was presi- 
dent. He felt that they ought to live up to their prin- 
ciples, and moved that every member of the society 
should prove his sentiments by setting his own slaves 
free. 

When the Constitutional Convention, which he had 
years before suggested, was called, New York sent 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 8i 

Hamilton as one of its delegates. He was one of the 
ablest men there ; no speaker was listened to with more 
attention ; and yet with all he had gone through, with 
all his service in war and peace, this remarkable man 
was still only thirty years old. At that age most men 
are just beginning to make their force felt, but Hamil- 
ton had won his spurs as a thinker years before, and he 
stood among that famous body of well seasoned states- 
men the peer of them all. His chief speech before the 
Convention was said by Gouverneur Morris to be '' the 
most able and impressive I ever heard." 

He had his plan for a Constitution. It was one that 
would have given the central government great power. 
It was opposed by those who were jealous for the 
dignity and power of the States. The plan finally 
adopted was a compromise between the various views 
offered. It differed from Hamilton's plan, but he 
signed the new Constitution and went back to New 
York to support it with all the power at his command. 
It needed to be adopted by the States, and a party in 
New York bitterly opposed it, being in favor of State 
independence. Many opposed it in other States, Pat- 
rick Henry among those in Virginia, and it was far 
from sure that this great State paper would be accepted. 

In this dilemma Hamilton came nobly to the front. 
He and two other able men, James Madison and John 
Jay, wrote and published the most brilliant series of 
political essays ever written in the United States. 
These were in support of the Constitution. There were 
eighty-five in all, of which Hamilton wrote more than 
fifty. They were afterwards published under the 
title of the " Federalist," and of the three pens that 
wrote this famous work, that of Hamilton was the 
ablest and most convincing. 
6 



82 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

He supported the Constitution with his voice as well 
as with his pen. When the Convention for the adop- 
tion of the Constitution met at Poughkeepsie, New 
York, Hamilton was the chief speaker in its favor. 
The opposition was bitter and obstinate. At first it 
seemed to carry with it the whole body. But Hamil- 
ton's luminous and brilliant speeches gradually broke 
down its force, and when the vote was finally taken 
nearly the whole body cast their ballots in its favor. 
Alexander Hamilton had won in one of the greatest 
contests of his life. Now came to him another oppor- 
tunity. The new government was formed. George 
Washington was unanimously elected the President. 
He looked around him for a body of skilled advisers 
to help him in his arduous work. One of the most 
difficult subjects to be handled was that of finances. 
The country was practically bankrupt. Only a man of 
exceptional ability could lift it above its difficulties. 

Washington consulted Robert Morris, who had been 
superintendent of finance and had done much to save 
the country from ruin. " What is to be done with this 
heavy debt ?" he asked. 

" There is but one man in the United States who can 
tell you," said Morris, " and that man is Alexander 
Hamilton." 

Washington, who probably thought the same thing, 
at once appointed Hamilton Secretary of the Treasury. 

The new Secretary had a tremendous task before 
him. The young nation had no money and no credit. 
It was deeply in debt and was practically bankrupt. 
How was it to be got out of this difficulty? It is 
doubtful if there was another man then in the country 
that could have solved this problem with half the 
quickness and completeness of Alexander Hamilton. 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 83 

He began by a radical measure that startled Congress. 
He proposed that the general government should 
assume all the debts of the States. This seemed like 
adding immensely to a burden that was already too 
heavy, but Hamilton gave such convincing reasons 
for it that Congress adopted it. 

To pay this debt some plan of taxation had to be 
devised. A direct tax is always unpopular, and Hamil- 
ton proposed an indirect tax, by laying a moderate 
tariff on imported goods. He also proposed a national 
bank, like those of England and France. This, too, 
was adopted, the capital of the bank being made ten 
million dollars. A mint for the coinage of American 
money was also established. The next step was the 
funding of the public debt and the issuing of bonds, 
a device providing for its gradual payment. 

These wise plans had their intended effect. The 
pressure upon the Government was quickly relieved. 
Money came in, enabling the government to meet its 
foreign debts as they became due and to pay its running 
expenses. As for the internal debt, people were con- 
tent to take the Government bonds. The credit of the 
United States was completely restored. When Hamil- 
ton withdrew from the Cabinet, five years later, no 
country had a better fiscal system, and it was all due to 
him. In the words of Daniel Webster : *' He smote 
the rock of the national resources and abundant streams 
of revenue burst forth. He touched the dead corpse of 
public credit and it sprang upon its feet." 

When Hamilton left the Cabinet it was to resume 
his law business, his salary as Secretary barely suf- 
ficing to maintain his family. He soon again became 
the leader of the New York bar. He bought himself 
a small estate near New York City, which he named 



84 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

'' The Grange." It was shaded with fine old trees, 
the balcony commanded a beautiful prospect, and he 
spent many of his leisure hours happily in his garden 
or with his family and friends. 

But he could not escape from politics. Washington 
frequently consulted him. Party interests occupied 
his attention. Two parties had grown up in the coun- 
try, the Federal, of which he was the head, and the 
Democratic, of which Jefferson was the leader. He 
believed in a strong central government, and would 
have liked Washington to have the standing and state 
of a king. Jefferson was a strong advocate of State- 
rights. This diiference of opinion led to much bad 
feeling between the two when they were together in the 
Cabinet and after they had left it. 

In New York the leader of the Democrats was 
Aaron Burr, a brilliant and able man, but not a safe 
and honest one. After serving as Vice-President 
under Jefferson, Burr became a candidate for governor 
of New York in 1704, but was defeated, partly through 
Hamilton's opposition. A newspaper report said that 
Hamilton had *' expressed a despicable opinion " of 
Burr and " looked upon him as a dangerous man." 

Burr, disappointed and angry, demanded that Hamil- 
ton should deny this. Hamilton declined. Then Burr 
challenged him to fight a duel. In those days, when 
duels were common, Hamilton would have been looked 
upon with contempt if he had refused. The duel took 
place in New Jersey, opposite the city of New York, 
on July II, 1804. Hamilton fell before Burr's bullet 
and died the following day. 

Thus died, in sustaining what was falsely called the 
" code of honor," the greatest statesman and financier 
of his age. 



JOHN ADAMS, THE LEADER OF THE 
BOSTON PATRIOTS 

While Samuel Adams was the leading spirit among 
the New England patriots in the times before the 
Revolution, there were others little less prominent. 
Chief among these was his cousin, John Adams ; his 
co-worker, John Hancock ; and the orator of patriotism, 
James Otis, who, in the words of John Adams, was 
" a flame of fire." * John Hancock shared with Samuel 
Adams the honor of being left out of the pardon 
offered the rebels and of being one of the men whom 
the British troops marched to Lexington to arrest. He 
was afterwards President of the Continental Congress, 
and his name stands at the head of the signers of the 
Declaration of Independence in large, bold letters. 
When he wrote it he said : " The British ministry can 
read that name without their spectacles." 

Most important among these men in his after career 
was John Adams, the story of whose life we shall 
here give. Born in Braintree, Massachusetts, in 
1735, John Adams came to bear a great part in Amer- 
ican public life. He succeeded Washington as Presi- 
dent of the United States. Before he died his son, 
John Quincy Adams, was elected President. His 
grandson, Charles Francis Adams, was afterwards 
nominated for Vice-President. This is certainly a fine 
record for the Adams family. 

The father of John Adams was a poor farmer, but he 
wanted his son to be educated, and toiled the harder 

85 



86 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

that he might send him to Harvard College. After 
leaving college Adams studied the law, married a 
bright and clever young woman, and settled down to 
practice in his native town. In principles he was a 
sturdy patriot, and when the British Parliament passed 
the Stamp Act, and an uproar broke out in America, 
Adams was one of its leaders. He was an able speaker, 
with a fine-sounding voice and a clear way of thinking, 
and he told the people in plain language what he 
thought about Parliament and the tax. He wrote as 
well as spoke, and made such a stir that the British 
leaders tried to buy him over by offering him a good 
paying position. They made a mistake. Adams was 
poor, but he was not to be bought. 

John Adams believed in justice, no matter on which 
side it was. When the " Boston Massacre " took place, 
the soldiers who fired on the people were arrested and 
tried for murder. Adams did not think this just. 
They had been attacked by a mob and fired in self- 
defence. So he became their lawyer, saying that it was 
the people and not the soldiers who were in fault. He 
won his case. All the soldiers were set free, though 
two whose shots had killed men were branded in the 
hand. The people, when they quieted down, thought 
all the better of John Adams for what he did. 

In 1774 Adams became a member of the First 
Continental Congress, and in 1776 was one of the 
committee to prepare the Declaration of Independence. 
He supported this by a great speech. Jefferson said of 
him : 

" John Adams was the ablest advocate and champion 
of independence on the floor of the House. He was 
the colossus of that Congress. Not graceful, not 
eloquent, not always fluent in his public addresses, 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 87 

he yet came out with a power of thought and expres- 
sion which moved his hearers from their seats." 

In 1774 his friend Sewell had urged him not to 
engage in the dangerous business of revolution. 
Adams repHed with the memorable words : " The die 
is now cast. I have passed the Rubicon. Sink or 
swim, live or die, survive or perish with my country, 
is my unalterable determination." 

On the 3d of July, 1776, he wrote a letter to his wife 
which had in it this celebrated passage: 

*' Yesterday the greatest question was discussed 
which was ever debated in America ; and a greater, 
perhaps, never was nor will be decided among men. 
The second day of July, 1776, will be the most mem- 
orable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to 
believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding gen- 
erations as the great anniversary festival. It ought 
to be commemorated as the day of deliverance by 
solemn acts of devotion to Almighty God. It ought to 
be solemnized wnth pomp and parade, with shows, 
games, sports, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from 
one end of the continent to another from this time for- 
ward, forevermore." 

His prediction has come true, but not for the 2d of 
July, the day w^hen the resolution before Congress was 
adopted, but for the 4th, the day when the Declaration 
which sprang from this resolution was adopted and 
John Adams and most of the members signed it. For 
more than a century and a quarter that day has been 
celebrated in the way he suggested, and it will probably 
be for many centuries to come. 

There was no busier man in Congress than Adams. 
He was chairman of twenty-five committees and was 
at the head of the War Department. In 1777 he was 



88 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

sent to France to help make a treaty with that country. 
On the way across, the " Boston," in which he sailed, 
was chased by a British man-of-war, but was fast 
enough to escape. It had also a fight with a British 
privateer, and when the two vessels came close together 
Adams seized a musket and began fighting like a com- 
mon sailor. When the captain saw him he was angry 
and roared out : 

** Why are you here, sir? I am commanded to 
carry you safely to Europe and I will do it." Adams 
was a little man and the captain was a big one, and 
the big man picked up the little man in his arms as 
if he were a child and carried him below deck. Soon 
after the privateer was captured, and the '' Boston " 
sailed onward for France. 

It was March, 1778, when Adams got there. He 
was too late, for Franklin had already made the treaty 
with France. He went to Europe again in 1780, was 
Minister to Holland in 1782 and got that country to 
recognize the United States, and in 1783 was one of the 
five men who negotiated the treaty of peace with 
Great Britain. As he had been in at the beginning of 
the struggle for independence, he was in at its close. 

In 1784 Adams had the honor of being made the 
first United States Minister to Great Britain. It was a 
dramatic moment when he stood before King George 
III., as the representative of that nation which had 
just won its liberty from the king. George received 
him politely and graciously, but he said something 
which drew from Adams the proud remark : " I must 
tell your Majesty that I love no country but my own." 

"An honest man will never love any other," was the 
polite reply of the king. 

But there were men at the British court who were 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 89 

not as gentlemanly as their king and treated Adams 
coldly. And the British queen was as cold in her 
demeanor towards Mrs. Adams. So, when he got back 
home again in 1788, he was glad enough to set foot on 
American soil. He had seen all he cared to of Europe. 

In 1789 a new and greater honor came to Adams. 
When Washington was chosen for President, Adams 
was made Vice-President of the new nation, and for 
eight years he held this office, serving as the first 
president of the United States Senate. When Wash- 
ington declined to be President for a third term, 
Adams was looked upon as the next most prominent 
man in the country, and was elected to the highest office 
in the gift of the American people, that of President. 
Thomas Jefferson, his old associate in Congress, was 
made Vice-President. 

As President, Adams had many difficulties to con- 
tend with. One of the worst of these was a trouble 
which broke out with France. The leaders in that 
country wanted to see Jefferson, the democrat, made 
President, and were so angry at the election of Adams 
that they would not receive the Minister he sent them. 
They passed an insulting decree against American com- 
merce, and hinted that the American envoys might get 
what they wished if they paid well for it. But Charles 
Pinckney, one of the envoys, indignantly exclaimed, 
" Millions for defence, but not one cent for tribute ! " 

There arose a cry in the States for War. Adams was 
in favor of it. He called out an army, and Washington 
consented to lead it. The navy was ordered to fight, 
and it captured two French frigates and many smaller 
vessels. This was more than the French had bargained 
for, and they were glad enough to withdraw their 
demands and make a treaty of peace. 



90 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

The short naval war made Adams very popular, but 
he did other things that made him unpopular, and in 
1800, when the time for the next election came, he 
was defeated and Jefferson was made President. 
Adams was bitterly disappointed. He felt so badly that 
he would not wait at Washington to welcome the new 
President. That was a very discourteous thing to do, 
and it made him many enemies. 

After that Adams lived quietly at home, where he 
spent a great deal of time in writing. Despite his 
patriotism and ability, he was a vain man, one of the 
kind that always thinks his side is the right one. And 
he had no soft, smooth ways, but was always blunt and 
plain-spoken. This helped to make him enemies. In 
this he was very different from Franklin, who once 
wrote about him from Europe : " Mr. Adams is always 
an honest man, often a wise one ; but he is sometimes 
completely out of his senses." 

As he grew older he grew softer. The bad feeling 
between him and Jefferson died out and they once more 
became friends. He had the satisfaction in 1824 of 
seeing his son elected President of the United States, 
and died on July 4, 1826, his last words being, 
" Thomas Jefferson still lives." He was mistaken. 
His old associate in the Declaration had died earlier 
that same day in his home at Monticello. It was cer- 
tainly a remarkable coincidence that the two members 
of the committee on the Declaration who afterwards 
became President should have died on the fiftieth anni- 
versary of its signing. 



ELI WHITNEY, AMERICA'S FIRST GREAT 

INVENTOR 

Americans are famous the world over for inven- 
tions, for the marvellous products of their genius are 
to be seen in all lands. The Revolution was barely 
at an end before their inventive skill began to show it- 
self, and as early as 1787 the first steamboat, that of 
John Fitch, was seen on American waters, and the 
pioneer of the locomotive was seen on American soil. 
But the first successful and famous inventor of this 
country was Eli Whitney, to whose hand the South 
owes its agricultural prosperity. 

In 1792 a young Yankee of this name was living in 
Savannah, Georgia, in the home of Mrs. Greene, the 
widow of the celebrated General Greene of the Revolu- 
tionary War. He was teaching her children and study- 
ing law. He had come south from New England, after 
graduating at Yale College, to teach in a Georgia 
family, but before he got there some one else had filled 
the place, and the poor fellow was in some trouble 
until Mrs. Greene took a fancy to him and invited 
him to make her house his home. 

Young Whitney was a born mechanic. While work- 
ing on his father's farm he had mended all the broken 
violins in the neighborhood, made canes, hatpins, and 
nails, and learned all he could about machinery. In 
Mrs. Greene's house he was as handy. He rigged up 
an embroidery frame for her, made other things, and 
mended everything that got out of order. She grew 
to look upon him as a genius in mechanics. 

91 



92 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

Such a genius was then badly wanted in the South. 
The farmers and planters of Georgia had tried several 
plants in their fields and had settled on cotton as the 
most profitable one for them to grow. But the cotton 
plant was giving them serious trouble. When ripe, 
as most people know, it has a white, fluffy head, made 
up of the cotton fibres, which are fast to the seeds of 
the plant. To use the cotton, these seeds had to be 
got rid of, and this was slow work. They had to be 
taken out by hand, and it was a day's work for a negro 
to pull the seeds out of a pound of cotton. This made 
the fibre very dear, and it was hard to sell it. In 1784 
eight bags of cotton were sent to Liverpool, and the 
custom-house people there seized it for duties. They 
said it must have been smuggled from some other 
country, for the United States could never have 
produced such a " prodigious quantity." 

Mrs. Greene had often heard her planter friends 
talking about this difficulty and wishing that some way 
could be found to take out the cotton seeds by machin- 
ery. She told them that there w^as a young Yankee 
in her house who " could make anything," and showed 
them some of the things he had done for her. They 
were much interested and asked him if he could help 
them. Whitney was quite as much interested, for he 
loved machinery far more than he did his law books, 
and he told them he would try. 

He knew nothing about cotton. It is doubtful if he 
had ever seen it growing. He got some of the ripe 
cotton pods from the planters, and pulled them to 
pieces to see how the seeds were fixed in them. Then 
he went to a cotton house and watched the dusky 
pickers at work taking out the seeds. It was not 
long before the bright fellow saw just how the work 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 93 

could be done, and he set eagerly to work to make a 
machine. He had to do everything himself, to make 
his own tools, and even to draw his own wires, for 
there was no one in that region who could help him. 
But he did it all, and did it well. 

The plan of the machine he made was very simple. 
It consisted of a network of wires, at such a distance 
apart that the cotton could go through them but the 
seeds could not. A set of circular saws, with sharp 
teeth, was arranged so that the teeth projected be- 
tween the wires. When in operation the cotton was fed 
in so that it ran down the wire grid or network, 
and the circular saws were made to revolve. Their 
teeth caught the cotton and pulled it between the wires, 
tearing it loose from the seeds, which could not go 
through but slid down out of the way. There was 
also a revolving brush which swept the cotton from 
the saw-teeth and kept them clean, so that they could 
catch more. 

Such is the principle of the famous cotton gin, 
which has been worth so many millions of dollars to 
the South. Since the days of Eli Whitney many 
improvements have been made in it, so that it does its 
work far better than at first, but otherwise it is the 
same as it was when it was made by Eli Whitney 
in 1793. 

When it became known that the young Yankee 
inventor was at work on this machine and felt sure 
that he could make one that would do the work, there 
was much excitement among the Southern planters. 
It would be worth so much to them. The news of 
it rapidly spread, and many wanted to see it, but he 
would not let them. He was only working on a 
model, he said, and did not want to show it before 



94 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

it was perfected. Besides, he wished to have his inven- 
tion patented before it was made public. 

Whitney was too honest himself to suspect others 
of dishonesty. He trusted his precious model in a 
simple frame workshop, with no guard but a locked 
door. One night some thieves broke open this door 
and carried away the model. When he arose the 
next morning and went to his shop, what was his 
dismay to find the door wide open and the precious 
model gone ! 

It was a bad business for poor Whitney. The prin- 
ciple of the machine was made known and anybody 
could make one like it. Copies of it appeared on 
all sides. As Horace Greeley says, " The South fairly 
swarmed with pirates of the invention, of all kinds 
and degrees." Before he could make a new model and 
procure a patent the cotton-gin was widely in use. 
He prosecuted those who were making his machine, 
but the juries of Georgia decided that they had the 
right to do so. The only justice he could ever obtain 
was from South Carolina, which in later years voted 
him fifty thousand dollars as a reward. 

Whitney's patent was got out in 1794, and a Mr. 
Miller, who afterwards married Mrs. Greene, went 
into partnership with him in its manufacture. But 
the demand for the machines was so great that he 
could not begin to supply them, so there was a good 
market for the pirated machines, though they were 
much inferior to his. Then his shop burned down 
with all its contents, and he was a bankrupt. In 1812 
the patent ran out, and Congress refused to renew it, 
so that the poor inventor made nothing from his 
machine but the fifty thousand dollars which South 
Carolina gave him. 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 95 

If of little value to the inventor, the cotton-gin 
proved of the greatest value to the South. In the 
year when it was made this country produced only 
500,000 pounds of cotton. In 1801 it produced 20,- 
000,000 pounds. To-day it produces much more than 
10,000,000 bales, of nearly 500 pounds each. 

Eli Whitney was too ingenious a mechanic to be 
content with one invention. After trying for five years 
to obtain justice, he went north to New Haven, Con- 
necticut, and began to make fire-arms for the govern- 
ment. He so greatly improved the machinery and 
methods used in this business that he fairly revolu- 
tionized it. He was the first to divide factory labor 
so that each part of a machine is made separately 
and will fit in any machine. If one of his fire-arms was 
broken, a new part, which would be sure to fit, could be 
had from the factory, and this is the case with many 
other things now. 

If Whitney was unfortunate in his first invention, 
his fire-arms proved very successful, and he made a 
fortune out of them. Thus he did not die in poverty, 
as many other inventors have done. 

Whitney was born at Westborough, Massachusetts, 
December 8, 1765, and lived till his sixtieth year of 
age, dying in New Haven in January, 1825. 



ROBERT FULTON, THE INVENTOR OF 
THE STEAMBOAT 

On Friday, the nth of August, 1807, there was an 
exciting scene on the shores of the Hudson River, at 
New York City. A crowd of people thronged the 
water's edge, and in the stream outside lay a strange- 
looking vessel, on which all eyes were fixed. Above 
the deck rose a smoke-stack from which volumes of 
black smoke poured, while queer-shaped paddle- 
wheels stood out from its side. It was the famous 
" Clermont," Fulton's side-wheel steamboat, the first 
of its kind ever seen on American waters. 

Years before paddle-wheel steamboats had been tried 
in Europe, but without success. In America other 
kinds of steamboats had been used. James Rumsey 
in 1786 drove a boat in Virginia waters at the speed 
of four miles an hour by pumping with steam power 
a jet of water through the stern. John Fitch in 1787 
was more successful. His boats were moved by pad- 
dles like those used in Indian canoes, and made seven 
miles an hour. They ran on the Delaware for a 
number of years, but did not prove a permanent suc- 
cess. Many other inventors were working on the 
same subject, but the true era of steamboating began 
with Fulton's " Clermont " on that morning in 1807. 

As the crowd looked on, some in interest, some 
ready to laugh at the queer craft, the wheels of the 
vessel began slowly to turn. They were uncovered and 
they sent the spray flying on all sides. Moving slowly 

96 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 97 

at first, in a little while the " Clermont " was fairly 
under way, gliding up the Hudson at the rate of five 
miles an hour. This was no great speed, but to the 
lookers on, who had never seen a vessel move without 
sails, it seemed magical, and cheers went up from the 
great crowd. Nobody felt inclined to laugh now. 
There -were many who had thought it ridiculous to try 
to move a boat with a steam engine; but — it mov*=^d, 
and there was no more to be said. 

Only twelve people took passage for that trip. Men 
did not like to trust their lives to a new-fangled craft 
with a steam-puffing demon in its inside. Along the 
stream, above the city, everybody was out. At every 
town the banks were crow^ded, hats and handkerchiefs 
were waved, and cheers greeted the enterprise. They 
were proud to see that an American had invented a 
workable steamboat, and that the Hudson was the 
scene of its triumph. Albany, nearly one hundred and 
fifty miles distant, was reached in thirty-two hours, 
and the return voyage to New York was made in 
thirty hours, an average of about five miles an hour 
for the trip. 

There were other scenes on the Hudson during that 
eventful journey. There were many sailing vessels 
on the river, the crews of which did not know of the 
great experiment, and as the strange water-monster, 
pouring smoke and sparks into the air, churning the 
water into foam, and moving against the tide without 
sails, met their eyes, they were filled with surprise and 
apprehension. Some flung them.selves in a spasm of 
terror on the decks of their vessels while the fire- 
dragon passed, while others took to their boats and 
rowed lustily for the shore. It was worse still at 
night, when flames seemed to redden the smoke, and 
7 



98 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

that pioneer voyage of the " Clermont " was a sensa- 
tion not soon to be forgotten. 

Who was Robert Fulton, do you ask? He was an 
American, born in Pennsylvania in 1765, the same year 
that Eli Whitney was born in Massachusetts. He 
made up his mind to be an artist, became a friend of 
Franklin in Philadelphia as a boy, and at the age of 
twenty-one went to London to study art under the 
great Benjamin West. While there he met James 
Watt, the greatest genius among the inventors of the 
steam-engine, and new ideas came into his young 
head. He felt that he had a genius for invention, too, 
and abandoned art to become a civil engineer. He 
made experiments and inventions, wrote a work on 
" Canal Navigation," showed in Paris the first pano- 
rama ever seen there, and did some drawing and paint- 
ing besides. Much of the first money he made in his 
younger days he used to buy a little farm for his 
mother, then a widow and poor. 

At that time many experiments were being made in 
the effort to move boats by aid of the steam-engine. 
Rumsey and Fitch had made some progress in America, 
and several others were trying in Europe. With 
what Fulton knew of the steam-engine, this seemed 
to him a fair field for his inventive powers. He 
began experimenting, Robert R. Livingston, our Minis- 
ter to France, who believed in Fulton, furnishing 
the money. Fulton was sure he knew why other 
inventors had failed, and that he saw the way to 
success. He built a trial boat on the Seine, furnished 
it with a steam-engine and paddle-wheels, and early in 
1803 was ready for its first trial. 

He made one sad mistake : the engine was too heavy 
for the boat. One morning he was roused from sleep 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 99 

by the distracting news that the boat had broken to 
pieces and the engine gone to the bottom. He sprang 
up and hurried to the river, to find that the news was 
true. The boat had broken in half and was resting 
with its engine on the bottom of the Seine. 

Fulton succeeded in raising the engine, and found it 
was not damaged. The boat was ruined, and he had to 
build a new and stronger one. When it was finished, 
in August, 1803, the new boat was tried with much 
success, the members of the National Institute of 
France and a great crowd of citizens looking on as it 
made its way down the stream, with a great deal of 
bluster, but not with any great speed. 

Much yet was needed, and the next experiments 
were made in New York, where they excited as much 
ridicule as they did interest. The idea of moving a 
vessel by steam power seemed to many of the good 
citizens only fit to be laughed at, and their surprise was 
not small on that day in 1807 when they saw the " Cler- 
mont " start away against wind and tide and move up 
stream. 

The problem of steam navigation, which had 
occupied the time and talent of so many inventors, 
was solved. The sail and oar, for the first time in 
history, were thrown oul of duty. Regular trips be- 
tween New York and Albany were made too or three 
times a week, a larger boat, named the "Car of Nep- 
tune," being built and put on the route, and in a few 
years the steamboat was pufiing its way along the 
waters of many American rivers. It had this time 
come to stay, and with successive improvements soon 
became a swifter and more serviceable craft. Fulton 
took out his first patent in 1809 and his second in 181 1. 
All they called for was the way he employed the crank 

LOFC 



lOO HEROES OF PROGRESS 

of the engine in the moving of paddle-wheels. For 
years he had a monopoly of steam navigation on all 
the waters of New York State. 

During the remainder of Fulton's life he was kept 
busy inventing and improving. He was employed by 
the United States Government upon engineering work 
connected with the navigation of rivers and canals. 
While in Europe he had made torpedoes for blowing 
up vessels under water, and these he now improved 
and they were accepted for naval use by the United 
States. 

In 1814 Fulton was delighted with an order from the 
government to build a steam frigate or ship of war. 
This he had long worked to obtain, and Congress now 
voted three hundred and twenty thousand dollars for 
the work. The work was finished the next year, and 
his steam-frigate, the " Fulton," the pride of his life, 
was successfully launched. 

Poor Fulton was not there to see it. He had 
been exposed to severe weather some months before 
and taken a violent cold. Before he recovered he 
went out in inclement weather to give some orders 
about the frigate, and his sickness came back more 
severely than before. It grew rapidly worse, and on 
the 24th of February, 181 5, the great inventor died. 

His life had been a marked success. Though his 
steam frigate was never made use of in war, his com- 
mercial steamers were to be seen on all the rivers of the 
United States, and in time began to drive sailing 
vessels from the seas. Other noted engineers arose to 
perfect the invention, and to-day steam navigation 
is one of the most important industries of the world. 



JOHN JACOB ASTOR, THE MONARCH 
OF THE FUR INDUSTRY 

In the year 1779 a sturdy German lad of sixteen 
might have been seen trudging along a country road 
near his native village of Waldorf, a small bundle of 
clothes over his shoulder, and German coins worth 
about two dollars in his pocket. With this slender 
equipment he was going out to seek his fortune in 
the great world. His father was a butcher, poor, 
shiftless, and good for nothing, and the boy had set 
out to do something for himself. 

Though he had very little money, he had something 
of more value. He was strong and hearty, had a good, 
plain education, was not afraid of work, had a head 
full of common sense, and was free from bad habits. 
He tells us this : " Soon after I left the village I sat 
down under a tree to rest, and there I made three 
resolutions — to be honest, to be industrious, and not 
to gamble." Three very good ones, most people will 
say. Such was the equipment with which John Jacob 
Astor left home to win his way in the w^orld. To-day 
his name and that of his native village are commemo- 
rated in the Waldorf-Astoria, the greatest hotel in New 
York. 

With no thought of great hotels in his young brain, 
the boy made his way along. He went down the Rhine 
on a raft, and got ten dollars at the river's mouth for 
his help. One of his brothers was in London, a maker 
of musical instruments, and with him the young ad- 
venturer stopped for some years, learning a good deal 

lOI 



I02 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

about instrument making, and how to speak English. 
At length, in 1783, with a good suit of clothes and 
seventy-five dollars in money, he set out for America, 
spending one-third of his money for a steerage pas- 
sage and another third for seven German flutes from 
his brother. With these flutes for a stock in trade and 
twenty-five dollars in money, he landed at Baltimore 
in March, 1784. 

On the ship he met a German fur-trader, a man who 
had made much money in the business and who advised 
young Astor to go into the same line. The boy went to 
New York, where he had another brother engaged in 
butchering, and with his aid and that of his German 
friend he got a position in a fur-store, where he set 
himself to work to learn all about furs. He studied 
their qualities and value and the methods of curing 
and preserving them. The trappers who came to the 
store were ready to tell him all about fur-bearing 
animals, their modes of life and the best way of taking 
them. He was constantly looking around and asking 
questions. 

A diligent and intelligent worker, his employer got 
to trust him, rapidly advancing him in position, and 
finally sending him to Montreal to buy furs. This was 
an important errand. The German fur-trader had told 
him what to do. He was to buy trinkets, go among 
the Indians, bargain with them, and get his furs at 
first hand. When he got back to New York he sur- 
prised and pleased his employer by the great number 
of fur-skins he had bought with the money given him. 

Two years after coming to New York Astor felt 
that he knew the business well enough to start for him- 
self. He took a small store on Water Street, borrowed 
some money from his brother to stock it with such 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 103 

things as the Indians Hked, and began to buy. When 
the peltries did not come in fast enough he set out 
himself with a pack of trinkets and visited the Indians 
and trappers of Central New York, with whom he 
usually made a good trade. Several such journeys 
were made each year, and on his return he would 
cure the skins and prepare them for market himself. 

After some years of dealing with New York traders, 
he took ship to London, where furs sold for much more 
than could be got for them in America. He made 
arrangements with good houses there to ship furs to 
them, thus greatly increasing his profits. He also 
engaged to sell his brother's musical instruments in 
America, and in time built up a profitable trade in these 
goods. At home he lived over his store. He had 
married a New York girl who was as wide awake as 
himself, and who grew to know as much about furs as 
he did and to be his match in a business deal. 

This was the way that John Jacob Astor's great 
fortune began. He was now making money rapidly. 
Instead of going out himself, he employed agents to 
buy furs and ship them to New York, and as soon as 
possible he bought a ship, in which he sent his furs to 
London. The little trudger on the German highway 
was fast growing rich. The beaver skins that he 
bought for a dollar apiece from the New York trap- 
pers brought more than six dollars apiece in London, 
and the money got for them was invested in British 
goods on which he made another profit in New York. 
From Europe his ships made their way as far as China, 
where large prices were to be had for furs, and from 
which they brought back teas and silks. A voyage to 
China would net him a profit of thirty thousand dollars ; 
sometimes much more. 



104 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

When he had been in business fifteen years he 
moved his store to 233 Broadway — where the Astor 
House now stands. He was now worth a quarter of 
a milHon of dollars, but was the same cautious and 
enterprising business man as when he began. When 
the treaty of 1795 was made, which fixed the northern 
frontier of the United States, Astor took quick ad- 
vantage of it. It limited the field of the Hudson Bay 
and other Canadian fur companies, and Astor soon 
had his agents out buying furs all along the Great 
Lakes, and far to the west of the lakes. 

He planned a great scheme of setting up a line of 
trading posts across the country, by way of the Mis- 
souri and Columbia Rivers, as far as the Pacific, and in 
181 1 he founded the town of Astoria at the mouth of 
the Columbia. It was his design to make this a start- 
ing point for his vessels, supplying China with furs 
directly from the Pacific coast, instead of following 
the long, roundabout course from New York. He 
proposed to make one of the Hawaiian Islands an 
intermediate station. 

This ambitious scheme fell through from the dis- 
honesty of his agents, who played him false and 
betrayed his plans to a British fur company, which got 
possession of Astoria and the Oregon business for 
a trifle. Astor's loss was more than a million dollars, 
but he bore it calmly. 

A shrewd, far-seeing, adventurous man was John 
Jacob Astor. His business judgment amounted to 
genius, and he rarely if ever made a mistake. He 
gave incessant attention to his busmess, and not until 
he was quite wealthy would he leave his store or ware- 
house before the close of the day. Then he got to 
leaving at two o'clock in the afternoon, and, after an 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 105 

early dinner, taking a horseback ride, of which he was 
very fond. His other favorite recreation was the 
theatre. He was plain and simple in all his habits, and 
the strict economy with which he began clung to him 
long after it had ceased to be necessary. 

He grew to be very rich, not wholly in the fur trade, 
though he made about two million dollars in this. But 
a greater source of wealth was his shrewd purchases 
of real estate in the upper part of New York. If he 
bought a piece of land he built upon it and made it 
pay by rents. These rents he used to buy new 
property. He had an instinctive judgment of the 
best localities for an increase in value by the growth 
of population, and by holding on to his properties he 
added many millions to his estate. The Astor estate 
came in time to have as many as seven thousand houses 
in New York City. 

During the last twenty years of Astor's life he 
lived in quiet retirement, employing business agents 
to look after his property, which grew to be worth at 
least twenty million dollars. Some of this money he 
gave away. All his relatives were placed in comfort. 
For the poor of Waldorf, his native place, he gave fifty 
thousand dollars. The Astor Library, founded by him, 
was endowed with four hundred thousand dollars in 
land and funds. He made other public gifts, but the 
great bulk of his immense estate was left to his eldest 
son, William B. Astor. Since then it has been sedu- 
lously kept together and increased, until its value has 
become immense. 

Mr. Astor's great success was largely due to his re- 
markable business powers, his temperate habits, punct- 
uality, perseverance, care that no money should be 
wasted and no enterprise undertaken until thoroughly 



io6 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

understood. This done, he was daring and enterpris- 
ing in his operations. He was prompt in all engage- 
ments, and cool and cheerful even under severe losses. 
Always an early riser, not until he was fifty-five years 
of age did he ever fail to appear at his store before 
seven o'clock in the morning. 

Such is the record of the boy who made wise resolu- 
tions as he sat resting by the wayside when he set out 
to make his fortune. He kept those resolutions strictly, 
and was always prudent, sagacious, tactful, quick in 
grasping and courageous in carrying out an enterprise. 
He was never liberal, being very careful and close in 
money dealings, the gifts which he finally made being 
given after his wealth was so great as to render them 
matters of small moment to him. Death came to this 
remarkable man on the 29th of March, 1848. 



STEPHEN GIRARD, THE FRIEND OF 
THE ORPHAN 

A QUEER old fellow, one-eyed, and one-sided in his 
nature, was Stephen Girard, the famous Philadelphia 
merchant of a century ago. Rich, eccentric, miserly 
in his habits, yet ready to spend his money and even 
risk his life for the good of mankind, such was the 
odd make-up of the old merchant. In our days a for- 
tune of more than a hundred millions of dollars is 
not thought remarkable, but in his days Girard, with a 
few millions, was looked upon as a world's wonder, 
stupendously rich, and he became famous as the 
Croesus of his day. This much more we may say, 
that no man, except Benjamin Franklin, ever did so 
much to benefit the great city in which he made his 
home. Miser as he lived, he left his great wealth with 
wise discrimination for the benefit of his fellow citizens 
after his death. 

The life of Stephen Girard was in one way like that 
of John Jacob Astor. Both poor boys, born a few 
years apart in Europe, they both made their way to 
America and there, by aid of a genius for business, 
built up great fortunes. Girard was born in Bordeaux, 
France, in 1750, and set out to win his fortune at the 
age of thirteen, as a cabin boy on a ship bound for the 
West Indies and New York. For thirteen years he 
followed the sea, becoming a thorough sailor, and mak- 
ing his way upward step by step, until he became 
captain and owner of a vessel in the American coast- 
ing trade. 

107 



io8 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

In 1776 he left New Orleans on a voyage to Canada. 
The colonies of America were then fighting for liberty, 
and ships like his were in danger of being captured as 
prizes by British ships of war, many of which were 
prowling about. On reaching the waters off the mouth 
of Delaware Bay the ship was becalmed, and Girard 
feared some British cruiser might swoop down on him 
like a sea-hawk. So with the first breath of air he 
sailed into the bay and on up the Delaware River until 
Philadelphia was reached. 

Thus it was more accident than anything else that 
made Girard a citizen of William Penn's city, then the 
metropolis of America. Sea traffic was just then too 
dangerous for a cautious man, so he sold his vessel 
and cargo and went into business in a grocery and 
liquor store. 

From the very start his cautious, saving habits and 
business judgment were shown. He saved his money 
carefully, and as soon as the war was over and the seas 
were safe, he invested his savings in the New Orleans 
and San Domingo trade, which he knew to be profit- 
able. At the same time he looked carefully around him 
for chances. The war had ruined business in Phila- 
delphia, but he was shrewd enough to know that it 
would soon revive, and he was ready to take advantage 
of the change. 

One sharp thing he did was to rent a block of build- 
ings on Water Street at a very low rate, which, as soon 
as business grew better, he leased to others for a much 
larger rent. But his chief inclination was towards the 
ocean trade, which he thoroughly understood, and he 
joined his brother in trading ventures to West Indian 
ports. Cautious, shrewd, far-seeing in business opera- 
tions, he went on until he had accumulated thirty 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 109 

thousand dollars, a small fortune in those days. He 
then left his brother and began dealing for himself. 

A remarkable accident about this tmie more than 
doubled Girards fortune at a single stroke, one of 
those strange chances which come in the lives of some 
men. In 1791 the negroes of the island of Hayti broke 
out in insurrection against the French, and a war for 
liberty began which lasted for years. Many of the 
planters were killed, and all that could fled for their 
lives to the vessels in the harbor. 

It happened that two vessels belonging to Girard 
lay there, and to these came several planters carrying 
what they could bring of their vv^ealth. Leaving this, 
they returned for more, but never came back again. 
They were probably met by armed negroes and killed. 
When the vessels reached Philadelphia Girard's cap- 
tains told him of what had happened and handed over 
the treasure. He put it safely away, advertised it 
long and widely, but no one ever came to claim it, and 
the treasure became his. This strange stroke of for- 
tune added some fifty thousand dollars to his growing 
wealth. He had become heir of the unknown dead. 

Girard by this time was looked upon as one of the 
merchant princes of the Quaker City and as one of its 
most enterprising citizens. His wealth was steadily 
growing, his enterprises were so carefully managed 
that they all proved successful, and he was fast grow- 
ing rich. But he did not make friends. He was of a 
sour, unhappy disposition, was looked upon as a miser, 
avoided society, and lived in a sparse way over his 
Water Street store, giving every hour of his time to 
his business, harsh and penurious to those under him, 
and exacting the best service at the smallest cost. He 
was not a lovable man. 



no HEROES OF PROGRESS 

And yet below all this coldness and harshness, this 
grasping for dollars and driving of hard bargains, 
there was much that was good and noble in the man, 
and the time was at hand when he was to show a 
courage in danger and a love for his fellows which 
put to shame many others of more specious show of 
philanthropy. 

In 1793 a terrible epidemic of yellow fever broke 
out in Philadelphia. Thousands were down with the 
dread disease, the hospitals were overcrowded with 
sufferers, multitudes were fleeing in terror from the 
city, great distress prevailed among the sick, and few 
could be found willing to take care of them. An 
appeal was made for nurses and money, and, to the 
surprise of everybody, Stephen Girard was one of the 
first to respond. He paid freely for help and supplies 
of all kinds, and, more than this, he offered his own 
services as a nurse. 

Entering a hospital filled with victims of the terrible 
pestilence, he took tender care of the sick, giving his 
earnest and unwavering attention to his duty during 
the whole continuance of the scourge. Daily his own 
life was in danger, but he never swerved from his 
work, fortunately escaping infection. When the epi- 
demic ended one-sixth of the people of the city had 
fallen victims to it, and many helpless orphans were 
left. To these Girard became like a second father, two 
hundred of them being provided for by him in an 
orphans' home. ,^^ 

Four years later the disease returned. This time it 
was not so bad, and the authorities knew better how 
to manage it. But Girard came forward in the same 
brave and devoted manner as before, aiding the sick 
with money and personal service. After the disease 



HEROES OF PROGRESS iii 

was finally overcome, it left behind it a new and better 
opinion of Stephen Girard. Men no longer looked 
upon him as a heartless and penurious money-maker, 
and though still not liked, he had won admiration and 
respect. 

This yellow fever episode was the one illuminating 
event in Stephen Girard's life. The crust was removed 
and men saw the true nobility of his nature. The 
remainder of his life was devoted to what he deemed 
the one important business, that of money-making, in 
which he grew more and more successful as time went 
on. 

He became a great sea merchant. Vessel after ves- 
sel was added to his fleet, until he had ships in all seas. 
There was hardly a port in the world where things 
were to be bought and sold that his ships did not 
reach. He was an adept in ocean trading, and knew 
just how to make the most of his ventures. With 
China and the East Indies he had a large trade, for 
there goods of great value in the West were to be had. 
Careful directions were given to his captains, which 
they were to obey on pain of dismissal. Thus they 
were told to buy fruits in the fertile islands of the 
south and sell them in northern ports. Here other 
goods were to be bought and carried again where 
they would bring the best price. Thus in each voyage 
two or three separate profits were made, and almost 
every venture added a notable share to his wealth. 

His captains must obey orders. He would take no 
excuses, even if much money was made by their taking 
a chance on their own account. This was one of 
Girard's fads. Any captain who broke his orders 
lost his place. He thought he knew best, and left no 
discretion tp his captains. " Once it might succeed/* 



112 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

he said, '' but if followed up it would likely lead to 
losses, and at last ruin me." He was an old merchant 
and deemed his own judgment better than that of men 
who, however well they understood the sea, had had 
no training in trade. 

Girard went into a new business in 1812. He bought 
the building and most of the stock of the old United 
States Bank and became a banker, the new institution 
becoming known as the Girard Bank. He made money 
in it, as he did in everything, in time increasing the 
capital to four millions and doing a large and profitable 
business. 

This was the time of the second war with Great 
Britain, and in the third year of this war Stephen 
Girard came to the aid of the Government, as Robert 
Morris had done in the Revolutionary War. Money 
was badly needed and a loan of five millions was offered 
the people. Liberal inducements were presented, but 
only the paltry amount of twenty thousand dollars was 
bid for. 

In this dilemma Girard came forward and agreed 
to take the whole loan, lending the Government the 
total sum. This act made the loan popular, and the 
far-seeing banker soon found a profitable market for 
the bonds. As his biography says : " He was the sheet 
anchor of the governm.ent credit during that disastrous 
war." Whether he had the aid of the Government in 
view, or his shrewd business judgment saw in this 
a way to add to his own wealth, this much is certain, 
that the Government found him a helper in its 
extremity. 

As his wealth rose into the millions it was used 
in new enterprises. He was active in obtaining a 
charter for the second Bank of the United States, and 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 113 

served on its board of directors. Several handsome 
blocks of buildings were built by him in the city, he 
subscribed liberally to the fund for the improvement of 
the Schuylkill, and invested largely in other directions. 
His wealth, which in the end reached the then enor- 
mous sum of about nine million dollars, needed a 
profitable output in various directions, and he was 
on the alert for good investments. 

Many anecdotes might be told of Girard's eccentrici- 
ties if we had space for them. He was a queer fellow 
throughout, testy and often ill-natured, caring nothing 
for society and paying no attention to religious services. 
Money was his god, and to that he gave his life, 
except in the one noble case of self-sacrifice cited. 

He married, it is true, but his wife found him far 
from being a cheerful companion, and hispenuriousness 
and testy ill nature made his household anything but 
a scene of domestic comfort. The poor woman in 
the end lost her mind and spent the last years of her 
life in an insane asylum, while Girard shut himself up 
more closely in his shell than ever. 

When old age came upon him the question of what 
he should do with his wealth occupied his mind. He 
had no children, his wife was dead, and when his will 
came to be read, after his death on the 26th of Decem- 
ber, 183 1, the people of Philadelphia were astonished 
and delighted with its provisions. After leaving 
legacies to his relatives, to such of his captains as 
should bring their vessels safely home, to his appren- 
tices and old servants, the great bulk of his estate was 
left to found a college for orphans, to improve the 
streets of Philadelphia and develop canal navigation, 
to a fund for the distressed masters of ships, and to 
various city and state schools and asylums. His pub- 
8 



114 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

lie bequests amounted to nearly seven million dollars, 
his private ones to several millions more. 

The city of Philadelphia was his chief heir, and 
Girard College his great bequest. Forty-five acres of 
land and two millions of dollars were left for this 
benevolent purpose, to be devoted to the care and 
education of fatherless white boys, who were to be 
carefully reared and apprenticed to some suitable occu- 
pation. 

Girard College, as the first of importance, is the most 
famous institution due to benevolence in the United 
States, and its great main building is the finest example 
of Corinthian architecture now standing in the world. 

It has started some thousands of boys upon the up- 
ward track in life, and its mission for good grows with 
the years, while the Girard Trust Fund, carefully man- 
aged and fostered, has proved of great value to the city 
of Philadelphia. Girard showed excellent business 
judgment in the disposition of his money, and the 
results have all been for good. No man in America 
has won greater fame as a benefactor of mankind than 
the eccentric and money-grabbing merchant of Water 
Street, Philadelphia, and Girard College stands as a 
noble monument to his memory. 



JOHN MARSHALL, THE EXPOUNDER 
THE CONSTITUTION 

John Marshall, one of the greatest among the 
great Virginians of the early days of this country, won 
his fame in a field in which there is not much of inci- 
dent to relate, that of the Supreme Court of the 
United States, of which he was Chief Justice for the 
last thirty-four years of his life. The greatest of all 
our Chief Justices, he is known as the ablest expounder 
of the Constitution, and this noble State paper owes its 
acceptation very largely to the wise and luminous 
decisions of John Marshall. 

Born in Germantown (now Midland), Virginia, 
on the 24th of September, 1755, Marshall spent a life 
of considerable activity before he reached the bench of 
the Supreme Court, and there are many things of 
interest to be told of him during the first half of his 
life. 

In figure John Marshall was not striking or com- 
manding. Tall and thin and usually erect, he often 
took very awkward attitudes. His face, swarthy in 
hue, with low forehead, black hair, and twinkling 
eyes, was not handsome, though kindly in expression. 
His voice was dry and hard in tone, and his manner of 
speech plain and forcible, but devoid of the graces of 
oratory. Often, indeed, he was embarrassed in speech. 
Yet the sound sense, lucid reasoning, and fine powers 
of argument of his speeches gave him command over 
his audiences, and were especially telling in his court 

"5 



ii6 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

decisions, in which wisdom rather than oratory is 
demanded. 

This will serve to introduce the great figure of John 
Marshall to our readers. In his younger days he was 
one of the most spirited of patriots, and served as a 
soldier throughout the Revolutionary War, winning 
distinction by his courage and ability. In seeking for 
the early life of the great Chief Justice, we should 
scarcely look for him as a dashing lieutenant of volun- 
teers, yet that is the way Marshall began at the age of 
twenty-one. 

He became Captain Marshall in 1777, and fought 
boldly and gallantly in many campaigns. He was pres- 
ent at the battles of Brandywine, Germantown, and 
Monmouth, was at Valley Forge during the terrible 
winter spent there, and by his patience and liveliness 
helped to give spirit to his fellow officers amid its 
hardships and sufferings. He took part with General 
Wayne in the daring assault on Stony Point, and 
served gallantly in various other actions. 

Near the end of the war, while he was out of the 
army for a time, Marshall attended a course of lectures 
on law and philosophy at William and Mary College. 
He had never been to college, having been taught 
at home by his father, and this was his first introduc- 
tion to the law. But his keen mind and quick judg- 
ment enabled him readily to take it in. During the 
war he had often aided as an arbitrator to settle dis- 
putes among the men ; and he now took up seriously 
the study of law. Before the war ended he was ad- 
mitted to the bar. 

Marshall quickly showed that he had now fallen into 
his true vocation. In a brief time he gained the repu- 
tation of being a promising young barrister, and a 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 117 

year of legal practice raised him to the position of 
one of the leaders of the Virginia bar. His elevation 
had been phenomenally rapid, but was a natural conse- 
quence of the great ability he displayed. 

He became a member of the Legislature of Virginia 
in 1782, and there, too, quickly made his mark. It was 
apparent to the members that they had a man of no 
common powers among them. There was work 
enough then for men of ability to do. The State 
needed reorganizing, and Marshall took an active part 
in the work. In doing so he came into close relations 
with Patrick Henry and other leaders of the day, and 
impressed them strongly with the commanding qual- 
ities of his mind. 

But his first great opportunity to make his force 
felt came in 1788, when the Constitution was before 
the Virginia Convention for adoption. In its support, 
next to James Madison, he was the leading advocate. 
Patrick Henry opposed it with all his wonderful elo- 
quence, making pyrotechnic orations that his audiences 
listened to with wonder and delight. Marshall, on 
the contrary, had no eloquence to offer. He simply 
talked, but reason and argument formed the basis of 
his talk, and his words had a convincing influence upon 
his hearers. The Constitution was adopted, and he 
shared with Madison the chief honor in the result. 

A still greater display of his power was made in 
1794, when Jay's treaty with Great Britain was under 
discussion, and was bitterly opposed in all pirts of the 
country. Marshall made so able a speech in its sup- 
port that the influence of it was felt as far away as 
Europe, and when, the next year, he was sent on a 
special mission to France, he was received there as a 
statesman of great distinction. 



ii8 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

In 1799 he was elected to Congress, and there 
strongly defended President Adams for giving up 
Thomas Nash, whom Great Britain claimed as a 
fugitive from justice. Marshall's speech on this sub- 
ject was marvellously able in its exposition of inter- 
national law, and settled decisively the status of such 
questions. 

In 1800 he became Secretary of State in President 
Adams's Cabinet, and on the 31st of January, 1801, 
was appointed by the President to the office in which he 
was to gain a fame unsurpassed in this country, that of 
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United 
States. This was a life position, in which he remained 
for the remaining thirty-four years of his stay upon 
earth. The profound knowledge, wisdom, and judg- 
ment which Marshall displayed in this high office 
gave him rank as the ablest of all who have filled it. 
He interpreted the Constitution upon just and liberal 
principles, his writings and arguments being of the 
greatest value to the courts of the nation. Its legal 
machinery was not yet running very smoothly, and the 
true significance of the Constitution, as applied to 
actual questions, was little understood. 

Marshall interpreted it in many famous cases, one of 
the most important being the trial of Aaron Burr, late 
Vice-President of the United States, for high treason. 
Here the Chief Justice presided, and in many points 
stood against the opinions of the leading lawyers of the 
day. Time has proved that he was right, and that his 
decisions were " a sound, even-handed administration 
of the law." 

Judge Story, referring to some of his famous de- 
cisions, praises him in the highest terms as a just and 
luminous expounder of the Constitution, and says: 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 119 

" If all others of the Chief Justice's judicial arguments 
had perished, his luminous judgments on these occa- 
sions would have given an enviable immortality to 
his name." 

Aside from his legal standing, he v^as distinguished 
for his benevolence, modesty, urbanity, and simplicity. 
His one contribution to literature is a *' Life of George 
Washington," in five volumes, which is highly 
esteemed. His home was in Richmond, Virginia, but 
he died in Philadelphia, having gone there for medical 
advice, on the 6th of July, 1835. 



HENRY CLAY. THE GREAT ADVOCATE 
OF COMPROMISE 

In those historic days when Washington was settling 
himself in his seat as first President of the United 
States, and this great country was slowly getting used 
to its new government harness, there entered the office 
of the Court of Chancery at Richmond, Virginia, a 
boy clerk whose ungainly appearance created a smile 
among the older lads in the office. He was fifteen 
years old, very tall for his age, very slender, very 
awkward, yet with a prepossessing face. And he was 
dressed in country fasion, wearing a pepper-and-salt 
suit, with stiffly starched shirt and collar and an equally 
stiff coat-tail. No wonder looks and winks of amuse- 
ment went round among the clerks. 

Such was Henry Clay at fifteen. Before he was 
twenty all his awkwardness had vanished and he had 
learned to dress and carry himself as well as the most 
fashionable of his fellows. He was never a handsome 
man, but he had an expanded forehead and a counte- 
nance beaming with intelligence, while his every move- 
ment had gained a winning grace. The ungainly boy 
had developed into the well-poised man. And his 
voice, always musical, now seemed to hold the rich 
tones of an organ. It had a depth, a volume, a 
harmony, a compass, rarelv heard, and was destined to 
fill large audiences with delight in future years. 

Henry Clay's early life had been one of penury and 
privation. He was bom in 1777, during the war of 
120 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 121 

the Revolution, in a low, swampy district of Virginia 
called the " Slashes," not far away from Richmond, 
the capital city. The boy had a hard life of it. He was 
one of seven children, his father, a poor Baptijt 
preacher, dying when he was four years old, leaving 
his wife to a desperate struggle for life with her 
young family. 

Henry had plenty of time for work, but very little 
time for study. We see him first sitting, one of a score 
of barefooted urchins, in a little log school-house, 
with a teacher who was good-natured enough when 
he was sober, but cross and irritable when he was 
drunk. Here the boy learned to read, write, and cipher, 
going into the arithmetic only as far as the rules of 
"Practice." 

That was the whole of his schooling. His mother 
had to take him from school at an early age and put 
him to work on her little farm. At thirteen we see him 
again, still barefoot, clad in a homespun butternut suit 
of his mother's making, riding to mill on the family 
pony, and carrying before him a bag of the corn he 
had helped to raise in the fields. From this he after- 
wards got the title of the " Mill-Boy of the Slashes." 

He was put into a Richmond drug-store as errand 
boy at fourteen, and a position was obtained for him 
in the Court of Chancery at fifteen. Here, despite the 
ridicule of the clerks, he made his way so well by study 
and industry that he was chosen by the Chancellor for 
his private secretary. The Chancellor liked the boy, 
taught him many things, and gave him a chance to 
study law. This he did so earnestly that he was 
practicing as a lawyer before he was twenty-one. 

Long before this the boys in the office had ceased 
to smile at Henry Clay. He had made friends among 



122 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

some of the best families of Richmond, was grave and 
studious in disposition, and had already shown himself 
a ready and able debator. Tradition tells us that he 
was the peerless star of the Richmond Debating Society 
in 1795, when eighteen years of age. 

Kentucky was then a rapidly growing state. Settled 
by Daniel Boone and his followers in Revolutionary 
days, it was now fast filling up. Clay's mother, who 
had married again, had moved to that fertile land in 
1792 ; and Clay himself, finding business anything but 
brisk in Richmond, followed her in 1798, when twenty- 
one years of age. Like many others, he thought it 
would pay to " grow up with the country." 

The young lawyer hung out his sign over an office 
in Lexington, Kentucky, and waited for business. He 
had plenty of ambition, but his pocket was empty. He 
had not money enough to pay his board, and his first 
fifteen-shilling fee filled him with delight. But he was 
versed in the law, was a good pleader, and so success- 
ful in his cases that business came to him fast. In less 
than two years he married a woman of excellent stand- 
ing and character, and soon after had money enough to 
buy an estate of six hundred acres near Lexington, 
named Ashland. It afterwards became famous as the 
home of Henry Clay. 

Thus was the future great orator launched in life. 
He soon became active in politics, advocating the policy 
of President Jefferson, whom he esteemed as one of the 
best and ablest of men. His native powers as a speaker 
had now greatly developed, his rich, resonant voice was 
heard widely on stump and rostrum, and his powers of 
rhetoric and oratory unfolded so rapidly that he soon 
became highly popular as a public speaker. The people 
of Lexington thought that a man of his powers 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 123 

ought to represent them in the legislature, and he was 
elected by a large majority in 1803. 

As a law-maker Clay's ability was so marked that 
three years later, when one of the Kentucky Senators 
resigned, he was chosen to fill the balance of his term 
in the Senate of the United States. He was re-elected 
to this body again in 1809, another Senator having 
resigned. 

Up to this time Henry Clay had not especially made 
his mark, though he was becoming widely known as 
an orator of unusual powers and a statesman of fine 
ability. His great career began in 181 1, when he was 
elected to Congress as a member of the House. 

It was a time of great political activity. Troubles 
were growing between England and the United States. 
War was in the air, and Clay became such an ardent 
and powerful advocate of appeal to the sword that the 
war-party in the House immediately elected him 
Speaker. He attained to his important office at thirty- 
four years of age. 

From that time on Clay's voice fiercely denounced 
Great Britain for its injuries and insults to this coun- 
try, and he had more to do with bringing on the war 
of 1812 than any other individual. He often left his 
seat as Speaker to arouse the House by his clarion 
voice. He put new spirit into President Madison. 
When the war began and the soldiers set out for the 
field, Clay warmed their hearts with inspiring words, 
and they read his speeches with delight by their camp- 
fires. At a later date, when all seemed going wrong 
in the army, the President wished to appoint him 
commander-in-chief, but Gallatin objected, saying, 
" What shall we do without him in the House of 
Representatives ?" 



124 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

In 1814 Russia, as a friend of both countries, tried 
to bring about a peace, much as the United States did 
for Russia and Japan in the war of 1905. Both parties 
were tired of the war, and " Harry of the West," as 
Clay was then called, was chosen as one of the com- 
missioners to the peace conference at Ghent. The 
treaty was agreed to on the day before Christmas, 
18 14. In settling its terms Clay gained many advan- 
tages for the United States. 

On his return, in 1815, he was at once sent back to 
Congress, where he was re-elected Speaker, and for 
the years that followed he was the leader of the 
House, leaving it in 1825 to become Secretary of State. 
Never has the House known his superior as a presid- 
ing officer. There was a charm of manner, a dignity, 
and a reserved power in the way in which he held 
together the excitable members, and during his whole 
career not one of his decisions was reversed. Party 
feeling was intense during his early years as Speaker, 
and all his strength and resolution were often needed 
to keep order, but he never failed. 

The great event of this period in Henry Clay's career 
was the famous Missouri Compromise of 1821. It 
was a result of the first great struggle over the sub- 
ject of Slavery. New territories were opening In 
the West, and the planters of the South claimed the 
right to take their slaves into this region. Missouri 
applied for admission as a State in 1820, and at once 
there arose a bitter contest as to whether it should 
be admitted as a slave or a free State. The dispute 
grew so hot and violent that there was almost a war on 
the floor of Congress. 

Finally a compromise was suggested under which 
Missouri was to be a slave State, but no other slave 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 125 

States were to be made in the Western country north 
of the parallel of 36° 30', the southern boundary of 
Missouri. Clay, a peace-maker in spirit, despite his 
advocacy of war ten years before, became the great 
advocate of this compromise. He did not confine 
himself to speeches, but went in person from member 
to member, talking with them, reasoning, beseeching, 
and persuading, in his most winning way. He suc- 
ceeded, the Compromise Bill was passed, and the 
difficulty was settled for the next thirty years. Clay 
was praised as the " great pacificator." 

In the year 1824 Jackson, Adams, Crawford, and 
Clay were candidates for the Presidency. Jackson 
got the largest number of votes, but none of the can- 
didates had a majority, and the choice of a President 
was left to the House of Representatives. The choice 
was to be made from the three highest candidates, 
of which Clay was not one. He was still Speaker, his 
influence in the House was very great, and as Jackson 
had long been his bitter enemy he naturally used his 
influence in favor of Adams, who was declared elected. 

Adams, on forming his Cabinet, selected Clay for 
the highest place in it, appointing him Secretary of 
State. In consequence of this the charge was made 
that Clay had sold his influence to get this high post, 
and that there had been a bargain between him and 
Adams before the election. The charge was false and 
malicious, as has since been shown, but it was widely 
believed at the time, and it hurt Clay for all the rest of 
his career. For years the cry of " bargain and sale " 
was not allowed to drop. 

The next great question that came before the coun- 
try was that of a protective tariff. Henry Clay was 
one of its ablest supporters. In a few years a new 



126 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

tariff party was formed, called the Whig party, which 
looked upon Clay as its leader. The tariff question be- 
came urgent after 1829, when Jackson was made Pres- 
ident, and so much hostile feeling was stirred up that 
South Carolina attempted to secede from the Union. 
This was checked by the vigorous action of ''Old Hick- 
ory," who took hold of the affair with a warlike grip. 

But the tariff contest remained before the country, 
and something needed to be done with it. Clay ceased 
to be Secretary of State when Jackson became Presi- 
dent, but two years afterwards he was elected to the 
Senate. The agitation was great, and Clay did his best 
to allay it, offering his second great compromise meas- 
ure. This was the compromise tariff of 1833, under 
which the duties were gradually reduced till they 
reached the level of twenty per cent. 

Clay ran for President against Jackson in 1832, 
though he had no chance of election against a soldier 
of such popularity. He ran again in 1844, and this 
time seemed sure of an election, for his popularity was 
immense. But the question of the annexation of 
Texas came up, and by trying to satisfy both parties 
Clay lost votes in both, and, to the utter surprise of the 
whole country, was defeated. 

Never was there another Presidential defeat that 
excited such intense feeling. The Whigs were utterly 
overwhelmed. " It was," says Nathan Sargent, " as if 
the first-born of every family had been stricken down." 
Henry Clay was not only admired, he was loved, wor- 
shipped almost, and his defeat gave rise to an extra- 
ordinary grief. Men and women alike wept bitterly 
when they heard the news. The busiest places in the 
cities were almost deserted for a day or two, people 
gathering to discuss in low tones the result. The 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 127 

victorious party made no show of triumph, the feehng 
being that a great wrong had been done. 

Clay was bitterly disappointed, and just then other 
cares arose to add to his depression of feeling. He 
had fallen deeply into debt, and it seemed as if he might 
have to sell his beloved home at Ashland to satisfy his 
creditors. The old man of sixty-seven, whose life 
had been given to the service of his country, was in 
no condition to start life afresh. 

But if his friends could not make him President, 
they could save him from poverty. To his utter sur- 
prise, he suddenly found that money had come to the 
bank at Lexington to pay all his debts. Where it came 
from the banker did not know, and Clay therefore 
could not return the gift, as it was his first impulse to 
do. He was forced to accept it, and Ashland was saved. 

Then followed the last great event in Henry Clay's 
life. From 1842 to 1849 ^^ ^^^ out of Congress, 
but in the latter year he was again elected to the Senate. 
He came there in time to face a momentous question. 
The dangerous slavery contest was thrown open again. 
Texas had been annexed, and new territory gained 
from Mexico. There arose a hot dispute as to whether 
or not slavery should be admitted into this territory. 
There was talk of disunion. No one knew but there 
might be war. The old warrior had to fling himself 
into the breach again. Once more he offered a com- 
promise measure with the hope of again removing the 
slavery question from politics. 

A sick and feeble old man, often needing a friend's 
arm to help him up the steps of the Capitol, he was 
never absent from the Senate on the days when the 
compromise question was up for debate. During that 
session of 1849-50 he spoke seventy times. On the 



128 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

morning of his greatest speech on the question he was 
so weak that he could hardly climb the steps. When 
he arose to speak his feebleness was evident. But as 
he went on his cough left him, his frame became erect, 
and his voice rolled through the Senate chamber with 
its old musical resonance. Never had he spoken with 
such pathos and grandeur. That great speech lasted two 
days. It won the contest and put off the Civil War for 
ten years, btit it wrecked the "great compromiser." 
He never recovered from the effects of the effort, 
though he lived two years more, dying June 29, 1852. 

As an orator Henry Clay's great power lay in his 
remarkable voice and his eloquent delivery. His 
speeches do not read well, but as spoken their force 
was irresistible. The following estimate is from Par- 
ton, the biographer : 

"Take him for all in all, we must regard him as the 
first of American orators ; but posterity will not as- 
sign him that rank, because posterity will not hear 
that matchless voice, will not see those large gestures, 
those striking attitudes, that grand manner, which 
gave to second-rate composition first-rate effect. His 
speeches will long be interesting as the relics of a 
magnificent and dazzling personality, and for the light 
they cast upon the history of parties ; but they add 
scarcely anything to the intellectual property of the 
nation," 



DANIEL WEBSTER, THE GIANT OF 
THE AMERICAN SENATE 

On the 26th of January, 1830, was heard in the hall 
of the United States Senate the greatest oration ever 
delivered on the American rostrum. It was Daniel 
Webster's famous '' Reply to Hayne," the noblest 
effort in the career of our noblest orator, and as great 
in its way as the world-famed oration of Demosthenes, 
" On the Crown." 

Forty years before this Webster was a poor boy, 
the son of a New Hampshire farmer, who seems 
to have had plenty to do, but was so fond of books 
that he snatched every spare minute of time to read. 
His father had a saw mill, and Daniel had to set the 
logs, but while the saw was cutting through them he 
kept his eyes on the pages of a book. It was the same 
with his odd minutes on the farm or when on an 
errand, and at night he read diligently by the light 
of a log fire. In this way the boy ran through the 
circulating library of the village. He read the Bible 
so ardently that he had much of it by heart. 

It is said that the first twenty-five cents he ever 
earned he gave to a peddler for a handkerchief on 
which was printed the Constitution of the United 
States. This he read again and again, till every word 
of it was impressed on his memory. He little dreamed 
in those days how useful this intimate knowledge of 
the Constitution was to become to him in his later 
days. As for his memory, it was extraordinary. By 
9 129 



I30 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

the time he grew up his mind was Hke a great 
store-house of useful information. 

Daniel Webster was born at Salisbury, New 
Hampshire, January i8, 1782. The Revolution was 
just ending, and five years more were to elapse before 
the making of the Constitution, that great state paper 
which he was so nobly to defend in the years to come. 

There were ten children in the family, he being the 
youngest. He was a feeble little fellow, so weak 
that the people around said he could not live. In 
his young days he was not fit to work, so he grew 
fond of wandering through the fields and woods, his 
chief comrade being an old British sailor who was 
as fond of the woods as he. The two would lie on the 
river banks for hours at a time while the old man 
told the child long yarns of his life on the sea. 

His outdoor life made him strong and fit for work, 
and he grew up a large, finely formed man. But 
all his life he kept his fondness for the woods and 
for the hunting and fishing which he had shared 
with his childhood friend. 

One day while Daniel was in the hayfield with his 
father a man who was riding by stopped to speak for 
a few minutes with Squire Webster, as the father 
was called. When the man had gone his father said: 

" Dan, that man beat me by a few votes when I ran 
against him for Congress, and all because he had a 
better education. For that reason I intend you shall 
have a good education, and hope to see you work your 
way up to Congress." 

The squire had a high opinion of his son's ability, 
from his studious habits, and felt that a boy like him 
should have every chance. Daniel was delighted with 
the prospect, but he felt that his elder brother, Ezekiel, 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 131 

a bright boy, ought to have the first chance. In the 
end Squire Webster mortgaged his farm and sent both 
boys to the Philhps Exeter Academy. 

There they studied heartily, Daniel teaching school 
for a time and copying law papers to help pay his way 
and that of his brother. In this way he fitted him- 
self for college, entered Dartmouth College in 1797, 
and after graduation engaged in the study of law. 

The story is told that Squire Webster, who had 
now advanced to the dignity of judge, got for Daniel, 
at the end of his college course, the position of clerk 
of the courts, with a fifteen hundred dollar salary. 
This was a great temptation for the boy, whose life 
had been one of poverty, but he refused it, saying, '* I 
intend to be a lawyer myself and not to spend my life 
jotting down other men's doings." 

The judge argued against this, deeming that a bird 
in the hand was worth two in the bush. There were 
already more lawyers than there was any need of, and 
not half work enough for them, he said. Daniel 
sturdily replied, " There is always room at the top." 

This resolution he kept, against the advice of his 
father and friends, beginning his law studies at Salis- 
bury and ending them at Boston, when he was ad- 
mitted to the bar in 1805. Ezekiel, with whom Daniel 
had taught school to help in his college studies, was 
already gaining a reputation as a brilliant lawyer. He 
was a fine-looking fellow, and some say that he was 
the handsomest man in the United States. 

Daniel himself grew to be a man of impressive 
appearance. As many readers may wish to know what 
this great man looked like, we quote Senator Lodge's 
description of him in later years: 

" In face, form, and voice, nature did her utmost 



132 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

for Daniel Webster. He seemed to every one to be 
a giant ; that, at least, is the word we most commonly 
find applied to him; and there is no better proof of 
his wonderful impressiveness than this fact, for he 
was not a man of extraordinary stature. He was five 
feet ten inches in height, and in health weighed a little 
less than two hundred pounds. These are the pro- 
portions of a large man, but there is nothing remark- 
able about them. We must look elsewhere than to 
mere size to discover why men spoke of Webster as 
a giant. He had a swarthy complexion and straight 
black hair. His head was very large ; at the same time 
it was of noble shape, with a broad and lofty brow, 
and his features were finely cut and full of massive 
strength. His eyes were extraordinary. They were 
large and deep-set and, when he began to rouse him- 
self to action, shone with the deep light of a forge- 
fire, getting ever more glowing as excitement rose. 
His voice was in harmony with his appearance. It was 
low and musical in conversation ; in debate it was high 
but full, ringing out in moments of excitement like a 
clarion, and then sinking to deep notes with the 
solemn richness of organ-tones, while the words were 
accompanied by a manner in which grace and dignity 
mingled in complete accord." 

Such was Daniel Webster in the years of his fame. 
He began to win a reputation as an orator even in 
college, where he was looked upon as the best writer 
and speaker of his class. While at the bar he added to 
his reputation by several Fourth-of-July orations. In 
the law he soon became highly regarded, and in a few 
years was looked upon as a fit antagonist of Jeremiah 
Mason, a man many years older and the greatest 
lawyer in the State. 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 133 

In 181 2 the ambition of Squire Webster was real- 
ized, his son Daniel being elected to Congress. He 
had run as a member of the Federalist party, then in 
strong opposition to the Democratic war party, led 
by John C. Calhoun, and supported by Henry Clay, 
the Speaker of the House. Webster strongly opposed 
the war. At the same time he advocated an increase 
in the navy. The force and intellectual power of his 
speeches on this subject placed him in the first rank 
as a debater, and he quickly became looked upon as 
the Federal leader of New England. 

After serving through two terms of Congress he 
withdrew from politics and settled at law practice in 
Boston, where his former reputation increased so 
rapidly that he came to be looked upon as the leading 
lawyer of New England. His first great case was in 
defence of the charter rights of his old college, Dart- 
mouth. This he argued before the Supreme Court 
of the United States with a skill, strength of argument, 
and knowledge of the law which spread his fame 
over the whole country. He became regarded as a 
leader among constitutional lawyers, and his services 
were called for in nearly all important cases before the 
Supreme Court. 

The effect of his arguments was enhanced by the 
magnificent manner with which they were delivered, 
his deep-toned and powerful voice, and his great per- 
sonal magnetism. " His influence over juries was due 
chiefly to the combination of a power of lucid state- 
ment with his extraordinary oratorical force." In 
criminal law his success was great, alike in pleading, 
in examining witnesses, and in his skill in baffling 
deep-laid schemes of perjury and fraud. 

During this period of his life Mr. Webster greatly 



134 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

increased his reputation by a series of splendid ora- 
tions upon great national events. One of the chief 
of these was delivered at Plymouth in 1820, on the 
two hundredth anniversary of the landing of the Pil- 
grims. Another great one was in 1825, when the 
corner-stone of the Bunker-Hill Monument was laid. 
Most brilliant of all was that given in Faneuil Hall in 
1826, when he eulogized the two great patriots, 
Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, who died on the 
Fourth of July of that year. 

Webster returned to the hall of Congress in 1823, 
quickly resuming there his former standing, and became 
active in the very important work of revising the 
United States Criminal Law. He was transferred to 
the Senate in 1828, then first entering that arena in 
which his greatest triumphs were to be gained. 

The old Federal party had long since vanished, and 
new parties were arising, with new aims. Webster 
took his stand by voting for Clay's tariff bill of 1828, 
and when the Whig party was organized he and Clay 
became its foremost men. 

He reached the acme of his career as an orator in 
1830, when the doctrine of the right of a State to 
" nullify " the acts of Congress was being maintained 
by Robert Y. Hayne, an able Senator from South 
Carolina. The excitement in Washington was great. 
Party spirit ran high. If the doctrine of nullification 
was sustained the permanence of the American Union 
would be in serious danger. Hayne, as the champion 
of the Southern side, made a speech of marked force 
and eloquence, in which he bitterly assailed New Eng- 
land and made a sharp personal attack on Webster. 

Edward Everett tells us of what followed. After 
the adjournment he hastened to Webster's house, 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 135 

expecting to find him in a state of great excitement, 
and was surprised at his entire calmness. He spoke of 
the Hayne speech, asked Webster if he proposed to 
reply, and finished by asking him if he had taken notes 
of his speech. 

" Mr. Webster took from his vest pocket a piece of 
paper about as big as the palm of his hand, and replied, 
' I have it all ; that is his speech.' " 

That was enough for Everett. He immediately 
left, confident that Webster would fully hold his own. 

On the morning of the following day the Senate 
chamber and galleries were packed by an eager crowd. 
It was felt that a great day in the annals of the Senate 
had dawned. When Webster rose, calm and grand, 
there was a dead hush of expectation. He began in a 
low, even tone : 

" Mr. President : when the mariner has been tossed 
for many days in thick weather and on an unknown 
sea, he naturally avails himself of the first pause in the 
storm, the earliest glance of the sun, to take his latitude 
and ascertain how far the elements have driven him 
from his true course. Let us imitate this prudence, 
and before we float farther on the waves of this debate, 
refer to the point from which we departed, that we 
may, at least, be able to conjecture where we are now. 
I ask for the reading of the resolution before the 
Senate." 

Such was the skilful and artistic beginning of the 
greatest speech the Senate ever heard. When the 
reading of the resolution was finished Webster re- 
sumed. Never had such a flood of masterly eloquence 
and argument been poured forth. The audience lis- 
tened with breathless attention, lest a word should be 
lost. The strong, resonant sentences, the pathos, the 



136 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

sarcasm, the reasoning, the fervent appeals to love 
of country, flowed in an unbroken stream. On, on, 
it went, in crushing and overwhelming weight, clos- 
ing with the most magnificent burst of eloquence that 
ever fell from human lips : 

** When my eyes shall be turned to behold for the 
last time the sun in heaven, may I not see him 
shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of a 
once glorious Union ; on States dissevered, discord- 
ant, belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, or 
drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood ! Let this 
last feeble and lingering glance behold rather the 
glorious ensign of the republic, now known and 
honored throughout the earth, still full high advanced, 
its arms and trophies streaming in their original 
lustre, not a stripe erased or polluted, not a single star 
obscured; bearing for its motto no such miserable 
interrogatory as, 'What is all this worth?' or those 
other words of delusion and folly, ' Liberty first and 
Union afterwards ;' but everywhere, spread all over 
in characters of living light, blazing in all its ample 
folds, as they float over the sea and over the land, that 
other sentiment, dear to every true American heart, — 
Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and 
inseparable !" 

The audience left the hall silent and awe-stricken, 
feeling that it had been given to them to listen to one 
of the greatest efforts of the human intellect. 

During the years that followed Webster's voice was 
often heard on momentous subjects before the Senate, 
and always with power and effect. He was one of 
the most popular leaders of the Whigs, and the great 
opponent of Calhoun in all tariff debates. In 1833 
he vigorously opposed Clay's compromise tariff bill 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 137 

and supported the " Force Bill " of the Jackson 
administration. 

He promoted the election of President Harrison in 
1840 by a series of speeches, and in 1841 was appointed 
Secretary of State, resigning in 1843. He returned 
to the Senate in 1845, and in 1850 supported Clay's 
compromise measure in one of his ablest speeches. 

The great orator was fast nearing the end of his 
career. In 1852 his name was presented in the Na- 
tional Whig Convention for the Presidential nomina- 
tion, but he received only thirty-two votes. His 
support of Clay's compromise had lost him many 
friends. In May of that year he was thrown from 
his carriage and seriously injured, and on the 24th 
of October, 1852, he died. 

Thus passed away our greatest orator. " He was," 
said Fraser's Magazine in 1890, " the greatest orator 
that ever lived in the Western hemisphere. Less 
vehement than Calhoun, less persuasive than Clay, 
he was yet more grand and powerful than either." 
Another able English writer says: " Our impression is 
that, excepting for Mirabeau, Chatham, Fox, and 
Brougham, no speaker entirely the match of Daniel 
Webster has trod the world-stage for full two 
centuries." 

There are Americans who would not admit these 
exceptions, Webster surpassing all the orators named 
in depth and profundity of knowledge and solidity of 
argument, his speeches being storehouses of thought 
and learning, lofty sentiment, solid judgment, brilliant 
rhetoric, and broad and generous views of the history 
and destiny of his native land. 



JOHN C. CALHOUN, THE CHAMPION 
OF SOUTHERN INSTITUTIONS 

In 1832 the great American Union was in danger. 
The State of South CaroHna had declared that it would 
not obey the tariff laws, would not permit any one to 
collect revenue in its ports, and would secede from 
the Union if an attempt was made to force it to obey 
the law. 

Four years before John C. Calhoun, a powerful 
orator from that State, had declared of the tariff, 
" We look upon it as a dead law, null and void, and 
will not obey it." From this expression his party were 
called " nullifiers " and his doctrine '' nullification." 
Two years before Webster had made his remarkable 
speech on this subject, powerfully defending the Con- 
stitution and the Union. Now there were open threats 
of war, and in parts of the State troops were drilling 
and putting their muskets in order. The fire had been 
kindled; no one knew how far it might spread. 

Fortunately President Jackson, ** Old Hickory," the 
hero of New Orleans, was then at the head of the 
government. More of a soldier than a statesman, he 
was a man of the kind that strikes first and talks 
afterwards. When the Carolinians began to threaten 
war he began to send troops to their State. A South- 
erner himself, he was an American first of all, and 
thundered out : " The Union must and shall be pre- 
served." He threatened to arrest Calhoun, the great 
advocate of nullification, for treason the moment he 

138 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 139 

heard of resistance to the Government in South 
Carolina. 

This settled the matter. Nullification sank out of 
sight. But the Free Traders in Congress were strong, 
and Henry Clay's Compromise Tariff Bill, for a 
gradual reduction of the tariff, was passed. Thus 
ended a critical situation which Calhoun was the main 
agent in bringing about. He was active in bringing 
on the Civil War, for he was one of the chief 
champions of slavery. 

John C. Calhoun was born in Abbeyville, South 
Carolina, in 1782, the same year that Daniel Webster 
was born in New Hampshire. These two men were to 
become powerful orators and bitter opponents on the 
floor of Congress ; Calhoun as a statesman of the 
vSouth, Webster of the North. 

Calhoun went north to college, working his way 
through Yale, where he showed such fine mental 
powers that Dr. Dwight, the president of the college, 
said he had talent enough to be a President of the 
United States. Certainly he had much more talent 
than some who became President, but like the other 
great orators of Congress he failed to attain this 
honor, though he was twice Vice-President. 

He began his public career in the legislature of 
South Carolina in 1807, and was elected to Congress 
in 1810, remaining there till 1817. When he entered 
the House the great subject of debate was the insults 
and injuries of England to this country. There was 
a strong war party and Calhoun soon put himself 
at its head. His first speech in the House was on this 
subject and was so powerful that he sprang at once 
into fame and was quickly ranked among the leading 
statesmen of his day. With him in the fight for war 



140 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

was Henry Clay, and these two strong speakers swayed 
the House till war was declared, and did not desist 
till it was over and peace declared. 

Calhoun began with war, and he was always at 
war. He kept himself at the head in party wars, 
now fighting for free trade, now for slavery, always 
in contest, always a leader in some hostile debate. 

Eloquent and vigorous as a speaker, he did not, 
like many others, make his points by personal attacks 
on his opponents. He was a gentleman in the warmest 
of his contests, and though he cut his way sharply and 
fiercely through the arguments of his opponents, deal- 
ing them stunning blows, he did not attack the men 
themselves. A trenchant reasoner, it was always what 
his opponent said that he assailed, not what he was. 
He could see no merit or force in angry and rude 
personal abuse. 

It is singular that, in this early period, Calhoun 
made a long and strong speech in favor of a protective 
tariff, the policy which he afterwards so bitterly 
assailed. But at that time the South was not opposed 
to a tariff. It strongly favored it. The opposition 
came later. 

In 1817 Calhoun was made Secretary of War in the 
Cabinet of President Monroe. When he took charge 
of the War Department all was in disorder and con- 
fusion, but it did not take him long to set it right. He 
established a new system, a very simple and very 
suitable one, and one that has been followed ever since. 
One thing he did not believe in was the saving of 
money by paying the men poorly and feeding them on 
mean food. He held that good pay and good food 
would bring better service, and this is still held in the 
army. No soldier in the world is taken better care 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 141 

of and treated more like a man than the American 
soldier, and he owes this largely to Calhoun, who 
first recognised the rights of the soldier. 

By 1824 Calhoun had become so prominent that he 
was elected Vice-President, with John Quincy Adams 
as President. He was elected again with General 
Jackson in 1828. During this time his opinions on the 
tariff changed, and he came to believe that free trade 
was better than protection for the interests of the South. 
Very many in the South were of the same opinion, 
and the agitation began which led to the " nullifica- 
tion " excitement. 

Calhoun was now the great leader of the South. 
Pie brought out the doctrine of the Sovereignty of the 
States, holding that they had the right to leave the 
Union if they had just cause. He was so bitterly op- 
posed to the course of the administration that he re- 
signed from the Vice-Presidency in 1832, was elected 
to the Senate, and kept up a vigorous agitation which 
only ended when President Jackson threatened him 
with arrest for treason. 

When the tariff question was set aside, that of slavery 
loomed up, and Calhoun became its most powerful 
supporter. He believed in it firmly. He thought that 
the slave system was morally and politically right. He 
thought it good for white and black alike, and that 
the best good of the country depended upon it. In this 
he was honest and sincere. No man was more up- 
right ; he fought for what he believed in, and his in- 
fluence became immense. For a quarter of a century 
he advocated the doctrine of the rightfulness and the 
extension of slavery, and there is no doubt that his 
arguments had much to do with bringing on the crisis 
that ended in the Civil War. 



142 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

" I mean to force the issue on the North," he said, 
and he did force it. Garrison and PhilHps and the 
other anti-slavery leaders might have found their 
labors in vain but for Calhoun, who gave them much 
to talk upon. The denial of the right of petition in 
the House, the annexation of Texas as a new slave 
territory, the forcing of slavery into the Territories, 
these were the things he worked for and aided in 
gaining. To the end of his life he protested that 
slavery is a divine institution, and that it must rule 
this country or ruin it. 

A few words will suffice to tell the remainder of 
his personal history. He was not satisfied with be- 
ing Vice-President, he was eager to be President, but, 
like his fellow orators. Clay and Webster, he failed 
in this. In 1836 he was a popular favorite in his 
party, but President Jackson was his enemy and de- 
feated his efforts, to his bitter disappointment. The 
remainder of his life was spent in the Senate, except 
for a short time when he served as Secretary of State 
in President Tyler's Cabinet. During this time he was 
active in securing the annexation of Texas, a move- 
ment then very popular in the south. 

From 1835 to 1850 the agitation on the slavery 
question was chiefly kept up by Calhoun^ Webster 
and Clay were earnest in trying to put off the day of 
strife, but he was as earnest in trying to bring it on. 
In his view slavery was a righteous and beneficial 
institution, and any aid given to runaway slaves or 
legal efforts to restrict the slave system was an inter- 
ference with the rights of the slave States which would 
justify their secession from the Union. Ten years after 
his death, which took place March 31, 1850, the doc- 
trine he so long sustained began to bear fruit, and the 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 143 

country was on the verge of the great war which put 
a final end to the system of which he had been the 
strongest advocate. 

We know Httle about the private Hfe of Mr. Calhoun, 
though it is said that he was just and kind to his 
slaves, and an honorable and pure-minded man. As 
a statesman he had keen judgment, great foresight, 
and much discretion, and his bitterest enemies gave 
him credit for splendid talent and ability. Harriet 
Martineau, in her '* Retrospect of Western Travel," 
has given a fine picture of him and his great opponents 
which is well worth quoting. She thus photographs 
the three great statesmen : 

" Mr. Clay, sitting upright on the sofa, with his 
snuff-box ever in his hand, would discourse for many 
an hour in his even, soft, deliberate tone on any one 
of the great subjects of American policy which we 
might happen to start, always amazing us with the 
moderation of estimate and speech which so impet- 
uous a nature had been able to attain. Mr. Webster, 
leaning back at his ease, telling stories, cracking jokes, 
shaking the sofa with burst after burst of laughter, or 
smoothly discoursing to the perfect felicity of the 
logical part of one's constitution, would illuminate an 
evening now and then. 

" Mr. Calhoun, the cast-iron man, who looks as if 
he had never been born and could never be extin- 
guished, would come in sometimes to keep our under- 
standing on a painful stretch for a short while, and 
leave us to take to pieces his close, rapid, theoretical, 
illustrated talk, and see what we could make of it. 
We found it usually more worth retaining as a curi- 
osity than as either very just or useful. I know of no 
man who lives in such utter intellectual solitude. He 



144 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

meets men and harangues by the fireside as in the 
Senate; he is wrought Hke a piece of machinery, set 
going vehemently by a weight, and stops while you 
answer; he either passes by what you say, or twists 
it into a suitability with what is in his head, and begins 
to lecture again." 

She paints his portrait in a few telling words : " Mr. 
Calhoun's countenance first fixed my attention ; the 
splendid eye, the straight forehead, surmounted by a 
wad of stifif, upright, dark hair, the stern brow, the 
inflexible mouth — it is one of the most remarkable 
heads in the country." 



SAMUEL F. B. MORSE, THE DISCOVERER 
OF ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHY 

In 1844 a Whig National Convention for the nom- 
ination of a President was in session at Baltimore. 
Henry Clay, the people's favorite, was the most promi- 
nent candidate, and a good deal of interest was felt by 
those waiting for the news. In Washington, forty 
miles away, the interest was great, and many waited 
eagerly for the coming of the first railroad train with 
tidings of the result. 

Suddenly the word went from mouth to mouth that 
Clay had been nominated. People heard the news 
with surprise and incredulity. How could any one 
know? No train had arrived, no mail or messenger 
reached the capital. When it was told that the news 
had come by lightning message, flashed over a wire 
which led from Baltimore to a room in the Capitol 
building, many laughed in scorn. They would wait 
for the train, they said. It was impossible for news to 
come in a minute from Baltimore to Washington. 

But when the train came in, confirming the report, 
there was a sudden change of feeling. An awe spread 
over the people. What did this mean? Were space 
and time to be annihilated? Had man made a dis- 
covery which would carry thought in a moment from 
end to end of the land? Men walked home sobered 
and wondering. All interest in the nomination was 
lost before the interest in this new and magical dis- 
covery. The name of Professor Morse, the discoverer, 
suddenly rose from obscurity to fame. 

10 14s 



146 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

Twelve years before this Samuel Finley Breese 
Morse, an American painter of much talent, was on 
his way home from Europe in the ship '' Sully " to 
accept the professorship of Literature of the Fine 
Arts at the University of the City of New York. He 
was then forty-one years old, having been born in 
Charlestown, Massachusetts, on the 27th of April, 
1 79 1. Until now all his time and attention had been 
given to the art of painting, and no dream had come 
to him of the strange history of his later life. 

Inspiration came to him in a talk of some passengers 
on the " Sully," one of whom had seen in Paris some 
experiments with the electro-magnet. These proved 
that the electric spark could be obtained by means of 
the magnet, and that the current of electricity which 
gave this spark could be carried very rapidly to a dis- 
tance along an iron wire. 

The story immediately interested Mr. Morse. If 
sparks could thus be obtained at the end of a long 
wire, could not some system of signals be devised? 
Morse talked it over with the gentleman, considering 
how this could be done, and trying to devise a work- 
ing plan. He thought deeply on the subject himself, 
walking the deck alone under the stars and debating 
inwardly on the possibilities of the current and the 
magnet. 

Mr. Morse was not a tyro on the subject of elec- 
tricity. He knew what had been done in it, and what 
had been discovered of its ways of action, and his 
thought bore remarkable fruit. Before the " Sully " 
reached New York he had worked out in his mind a 
complete plan, devising " not only the idea of an 
electric telegraph, but of an electro-magnetic and 
recording telegraph substantially and essentially as it 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 147 

now exists." He is said to have even invented an 
alphabet of signs, closely the same as that which is now 
in use, but it is probable that this was a later device. 

Mr. Morse had no time to give to a Fine Arts pro- 
fessorship when he landed in New York. A new idea 
had taken possession of his mind, and during the rest 
of his life most of his time and thought was given 
to telegraphy. He had a desperate struggle before 
him. It is one thing to lay out a plan in one's mind 
and another thing to make it work in matter. Many 
difficulties are sure to arise to trouble the inventor and 
sadden his soul. 

Morse had been something of an inventor already, 
and had made experiments in electricity and galvanism. 
This had been for mere pastime; now it was to be 
serious work. He went into his new labor with vim 
and energy, but the path before him was long and 
hard. Wires were stretched, experiments made, but 
again and again they failed to work. His money went, 
he had three children to support, starvation threatened 
him, but he kept on, doing enough painting to bring 
him some slight support. He had faith in himself, he 
had sympathy and aid from his brother and friends, 
but there were days when he had to go hungry for 
want of food. When his instruments refused to do 
what he expected, he studied them till he found out 
what was wrong, and made it right. 

At length he had ready a working model, but this 
was not until 1835, after three years of continued ex- 
periment and endless discouragement. He had a wire 
circling round his room half a mile in length and was 
able to send signals to its end, but he could not yet 
bring them back again. A duplicate instrument was 
needed at the other end of the wire, and he was so poor 



148 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

that two years more passed before he was able to have 
one made. 

Now all was right. His telegraph worked splen- 
didly. He could send signals both ways over his wire 
and read them easily. In September, 1837, he set it up 
in the University of New York and exhibited it to 
large audiences, who saw it with wonder and delight. 

But this was only a lecture room experiment. To 
make it a practical working affair was another matter. 
Money, far more money than he could hope to com- 
mand, was needed to bring it into general use. He 
applied to Congress, but in vain. Some interest was 
awakened, but no grant of money was made. Most 
men were disposed to ridicule the whole affair. Then 
he went to England, but with the same result. " Even 
if it does work," said one wise man, " what good will 
it be? Men get news now as fast as any one is likely 
to want them. Your idea is good, Mr. Morse, but it 
won't pay." 

Back to Washington again, and a new bill in Con- 
gress. It was the early spring of 1843. At midnight of 
March 3 the Congress then in session would end. 
Morse's bill had passed the House on February 23, but 
it hung in the Senate, quite crowded out of sight by 
the rush of bills deemed of more importance. Morse 
waited about the Senate chamber until nearly mid- 
night, and then, seeing the confusion growing every 
minute greater, and his case apparently hopeless, he 
gave it up in despair and walked sadly home. 

When he came down to breakfast the next morning 
his face was a picture of gloom. He was fairly ready 
to give up the fight and go back to the painter's brush. 
A young lady met him at the door with a smiling face. 

" I have come to congratulate you, Mr. Morse." 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 149 

" For what, my dear friend ?" 

" For the passage of your bill." 

'' What !" He stood aghast. *' The passage of my 
bill !" he faltered. 

''Yes. Do you not know of it?" 

'' Nothing at all." 

" Then you came home too soon last night. Con- 
gress has granted your claim. I am happy in being 
the first to bring you the good news." 

" You have given me new life, Miss Ellsworth," he 
exclaimed. " As a reward for your good tidings, I 
promise you that when my telegraph line is completed 
you shall have the honor of selecting the first message 
to be sent over it." 

Eleven and a half years had passed since the con- 
versation on the ship '' Sully," years of incessant work 
and bitter discouragement. Now success seemed to 
shine on the horizon. The grant was for thirty thou- 
sand dollars only, but he hoped that would be enough. 
The plan he had worked out on the '* Sully " was the 
following: There was to be an alphabet of some kind 
of marks, a revolving ribbon of paper to receive these, 
and a method of carrying the wires underground in 
tubes. He had thought also of supporting them in the 
air, but the other plan seemed to him the best. 

What he now wanted was a contrivance to make a 
ditch to lay the wires in. A man named Ezra Cornell 
was applied to. No one knew of him then, but he is 
now known as the founder of Cornell University, for he 
afterwards became famous and rich. He had an in- 
ventive mind, knew much about ploughs, and in a 
short time devised a machine that would cut a trench 
in the ground, lay the pipe at its bottom, and cover in 
the earth behind it. 



150 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

In ten days the machine was ready. A yoke of oxen 
was attached to it, one man managed it, and in five 
minutes it had laid one hundred feet of pipe and 
covered it with earth. It was a decided success. The 
pipe, with the wire within it, was laid so rapidly that in 
a few days ten miles were down. 

Here it stopped. Something had gone wrong. No 
trace of a current could be got through. The insula- 
tion of the wire was imperfect. Another kind of pipe 
was tried. Still the current would not go through. 
Many experiments were made, a year passed by, only 
seven thousand dollars of the money remained, the in- 
ventor was in despair. 

" I fear it will never work." said Cornell. " The pipe 
plan is a failure." 

" Then let us try the air plan. If electricity won't go 
underground, we must try and get it to go through the 
air." 

The new plan was to string the wire on poles, with 
an insulator to keep the current from the wood. Pro- 
fessor Henry, of the Smithsonian Institution, a man 
who was an expert in electricity, suggested a suitable 
insulator, and the work went rapidly on. To raise 
poles, put a glass bulb at their top, and string wires 
over them, was an easy and rapid process. And the 
signals passed perfectly. All the old trouble was at 
an end. 

On the day of the nomination by the Baltimore con- 
vention the wire was only partly laid. It began at 
Washington, but was still miles from Baltimore. But 
the train from Baltimore that carried the news of the 
nomination to Washington carried also one of the 
telegraph experts. He left the train at the end of 
the wire, telegraphed the news to Washington, and 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 151 

when the train reached that city its passengers were 
utterly astounded to find that they brought stale news, 
that the story of the nomination was already spread 
through the capital. It was an overwhelming proof 
of the power of the electric telegraph, and Professor 
Morse sprang into fame. The wire was completed to 
Baltimore by May 24, 1844, and, as Morse had prom- 
ised, Miss Ellsworth was given the honor of choos- 
ing the first message to be sent over it. She selected 
an appropriate passage of Scripture : " What hath 
God wrought ? " With these significant words began 
the reign of that marvellous invention which has since 
then tied the ends of the world together and fairly 
annihilated space. So strange was its principle to most 
people that, as we are told, even so high a dignitary 
as John C. Spencer, Secretary of the Treasury, asked 
one of Morse's assistants how large a bundle could be 
sent over the wires, and if the postal mails could not 
be sent in that way. 

While Morse was working on his telegraph system, 
others were working in Europe. While he was fight- 
ing Congress, inventors in England were experiment- 
ing with short lines, with the wire carried in buried 
pipes. But the system adopted there was one of sig- 
nals by vibrating needles, and was so inferior to the 
Morse system that the latter is now used almost 
throughout the world. 

Professor Morse no longer suffered from poverty. 
Telegraph companies were soon organized all over the 
country, his invention was adopted in Europe, and 
in a few years he was the happy possessor of a large 
fortune. Honors also were showered upon him. Yale 
College complimented him with the degree of LL.D., 
and tokens of recognition came to him from many 



152 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

other quarters, many of them from Europe, gold 
medals and insignia being presented him by several 
monarchs. 

The telegraph was not the last of the Morse in- 
ventions, several others being made by him. He also 
took the first daguerreotypes in America, made a 
pump-machine for fire-engines, and laid the first 
telegraph under water. This was a short line, but he 
afterwards took great interest in the efforts of Cyrus 
W. Field to lay a submarine cable, and gave him im- 
portant aid and advice in the project. He died in New 
York, April 2, 1872, having lived to see the telegraph 
working across the Atlantic. 



CYRUS W. FIELD, THE DESIGNER OF 
THE ATLANTIC CABLE 

The work done by Morse in inventing the electric 
telegraph and stretching it over the land was but half 
the battle to be fought. He had made the continents 
a pathway for thought, but the ocean remained to be 
conquered also, a channel needed to be made through 
the depths of the seas for the passage of human 
thought, and the invader of this watery realm came 
in the person of Cyrus West Field. 

This man of enterprise, who was born at Stockbridge, 
Massachusetts, November 30, 18 19, was a retired 
merchant of thirty-five years of age when the move- 
ment of events first brought him into the field of tel- 
egraph invention. He was one of four brothers who 
became notable in various ways. One of these, David 
Dudley Field, became prominent in the law, and was 
president of a commission to digest the political, penal, 
and civil codes of law in New York. A second, Ste- 
phen J. Field, became Chief Justice of the Supreme 
Court of California, and afterwards an Associate Jus- 
tice in the Supreme Court of the United States. A 
third, Henry M. Field, was prominent as a clergyman 
and author, and editor of The New York Evangelist. 
The fourth, by far the most famous of them all, is the 
one with whom we are specially concerned. He entered 
into business, made a fortune, and retired to enjoy it 
while still young. 

This was at the time that the newest great dis- 
covery, the electric telegraph, was becoming widely 

153 



154 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

known, being laid rapidly in all directions, and men 
had not yet ceased to wonder at its marvellous powers. 
In 1854 a number of enterprising persons became 
associated in an ambitious scheme. They undertook 
to build a telegraph line across the island of New- 
foundland, and connect it with a line of fast steamers 
from the eastern side of that island, arguing that these 
could reach Ireland in five days, and the news of 
Europe be brought to America within a week. 

These men had ideas, but they lacked cash. They 
wanted a man with money to help them. After trying 
to build the line and failing for want of funds, they 
looked around for a suitable man of wealth. Some of 
them knew of Mr. Field as a man who had built up a 
big business from a small beginning, was able, rich, 
and enterprising, and was out of business and with 
leisure to look into their scheme. 

The plan was strongly laid before the retired mer- 
chant. He was assured it would be of great benefit 
to the country and be certain to pay. He promised 
to think of it, and as he sat in his library, slowly 
turning a globe and looking for the situation of New- 
foundland and its distance from Ireland, the thought 
came to him : " Why not carry the line across the 
ocean ? " 

It was one of those illuminating thoughts which lie 
at the basis of most great enterprises. Field turned it 
over in his head, studied what had been done with the 
telegraph, and became daily more assured that it could 
be accomplished. It had some warrant in preceding 
efforts. Morse had suggested an Atlantic telegraph in 
1842, before his first land line was laid, and in 1852 a 
submarine cable had been laid from Dover to Ostend, 
thus connecting England with the continent of Europe. 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 155 

The idea conceived, Field lost no time in putting it 
in practice. In 1855 he obtained from the legislature 
of Newfoundland the sole right for fifty years to land 
telegraph cables, from either Europe or America, on 
that island. He was the man for the work, full of 
energy, enterprise, and enthusiasm. He formed a stock 
company at once, and followed this by organizing in 
London the "Atlantic Telegraph Company." His faith 
in the project was shown by his furnishing one-fourth 
of the capital himself. So devoted was he to the work 
that he crossed the ocean nearly thirty times before it 
was finally carried out. 

The project called for great care in the preparation 
of the cable. It needed to be made strong and flexible 
and to be thoroughly insulated. A mere pin-hole in its 
entire length might let the electric current escape. The 
centre steel wire was wound round with small copper 
wires, and these were covered with several coatings of 
gutta-percha and Manila hemp. Gutta-percha is a non- 
conductor of electricity, and was intended to prevent 
the current from leaving the interior wires. Outside of 
all these, eighteen strands of iron wires were laid. 

The submarine lines already laid served as examples. 
In addition to that between England and France, one 
was now working from Newfoundland to the main- 
land of America. These short ones were successful ; 
why should not a longer one be? Field's enthusiasm 
induced some wealthy men to put money into the 
enterprise, and in 1857 a wire was ready and an ex- 
pedition set out to lay it on the ocean bottom, ships 
being provided by the American and English govern- 
ments. This first attempt proved a failure, as did a 
second one in the spring of the following year. But in 
August of that year a third trial was made and this 



156 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

time with success. For the first time in history the 
thoughts of man were sent in an instant of time under 
and across the ocean. 

Those who Hved in those days will remember the 
vast interest, the great excitement, it produced. There 
were celebrations on both sides of the water. Mes- 
sages passed between President Buchanan and Queen 
Victoria, words of greeting and congratulation. They 
passed very slowly, but they passed. It took sixty- 
seven minutes to send the queen's message of ninety 
words. The current was distressingly feeble. It grad- 
ually failed and ceased to work. The sending of 
messages across the ocean was at an end. 

Field now found himself in a quandary. These 
experiments had been very costly, and the capitalists 
began to think that there was enough of their money 
lying on the bottom of the ocean. They tied their 
purse strings, and the enterprising projector found 
money for a new cable very hard to get. " It worked 
once. It will work again," he argued. *' It failed 
once, it may fail again," they answered. They had 
the best of the argument, for they had the money and 
the answer both. 

Then came on the American Civil War, which put 
an end to the enterprise for four long years. But 
Cyrus Field did not despair. All through the war 
he kept at it, arguing, persuading, beseeching, and in 
time the money for a new and stronger cable came 
in. In August, 1865, the new cable was ready. It 
was much superior to that of seven years earlier. Two 
ships had been used in 1858, and the wires spliced in 
mid-ocean. Now only one, the huge " Great Eastern," 
was employed. On her decks the whole length of 
cable, 2300 miles, weighing 4000 tons, was laid, and 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 157 

she steamed away from Valentia, Ireland, on her 
difficult task. All went well until she was 1067 miles 
out, when by accident too much strain was put on the 
cable, it broke and sank, and failure had come again. 

But the end was near at hand. With great difficulty 
Field raised more funds, had another cable made, 
lighter and stronger than the last one, and this time the 
" Great Eastern " made her journey without an 
accident, the shore end was safely landed at Trinity 
Bay, Newfoundland, messages passed freely from 
end to end, and one of the most wonderful of modern 
enterprises was safely accomplished. Then the ship 
went back to mid-ocean, grappled in the water's depths, 
two miles down, for the lost cable of the year before, 
caught it and brought it up, spliced it to the unlaid part, 
and set out again for Newfoundland. This, too, was 
landed, and two electric cables crossed the seas. Cyrus 
Field had not only achieved his great work, but had 
duplicated it. 

The wires worked splendidly. Men began to talk 
across the ocean as they had formerly talked across 
the street. It was expensive at first, one hundred 
dollars being charged for twenty words of five letters 
each. But the rates soon went down, and now, instead 
of paying five dollars for a word, messages can be sent 
for twenty-five cents a word. 

Mr. Field's success brought him the highest honor. 
Men no longer laughed at his enterprise as, years 
before, they had laughed at that of Morse, and, years 
earlier still, at that of Fulton. Congress voted him the 
thanks of the nation, and presented him a gold medal 
and other testimonials of honor and respect. The 
French Exposition, which was held soon afterwards, 
gave him its grand medal, and honors were showered 



158 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

upon him from other quarters. Success in his great 
enterprise had made him one of the conquering heroes 
of the world. 

Mr. Field did not rest in his later years, but spent 
an active and useful life, taking part in various im- 
portant business enterprises. In 187 1 he went into a 
company which proposed to lay a cable across the 
Pacific by way of Hawaii and Japan to China. This 
was not done, but since then electric cables have been 
laid across that great ocean. He also took part in 
laying the street railways of New York, and engaged 
very actively in the building of the elevated railways of 
that city. He died in New York, July 12, 1892. 



ELI AS HOWE, THE INVENTOR OF 
THE SEWING MACHINE 

For centuries and tens of centuries the needle has 
been in use as woman's especial tool. From the re- 
mote stone age down to the present day the song of 
" Stitch ! Stitch ! Stitch !" has been sung, and only 
about sixty years ago did the whirr of the sewing- 
machine begin to serve as the chorus to this wearisome 
song. Then a poor inventor of Yankeeland set his 
wits to work, and when he ended the machine was 
devised whose merry music may be heard to-day in 
hundreds of thousands of homes. 

Poor Elias Howe ! The story of his life reads like a 
romance; but, like that of many inventors, it was a 
romance of poverty, misfortune, endless discourage- 
ments, stern perseverance, a clinging to one idea 
through the darkest of days, and, in the end, success. 
He would have been a far happier man if the fever 
of invention had not seized upon him, but millions of 
households would have been less happy if he, or 
some one like him, had not brought ease and rest to 
the fingers of the sewing-woman. 

Elias Howe was born in Spencer, Massachusetts, 
July 19, 18 19. He was born to poverty and hard 
work. Until he was sixteen years old he dug and 
delved on his father's farm and wrought in his mill. 
Then he went to Lowell and learned the machinist's 
trade, and from there to Cambridge — a frail, sickly 
fellow, barely able to earn a living on account of per- 
sistent ill health. Yet he married, and by the time 

159 



i6o HEROES OF PROGRESS 

he was twenty-three had a wife and three children 
to support. Then, one day, he happened to hear 
some men in the shop talking of what a useful thing a 
sewing-machine would be, and the true work of Elias 
Howe's life began. From that day on, the idea of in- 
venting such a machine stirred in his mind and would 
not let him rest. 

The idea was new only to him. Many had tried it 
before, but with no great success. The first invention 
dates back to 1755, when Charles F. Weisenthal, of 
England, patented a needle with an eye in the centre 
and pointed at both ends. Several other inventions 
were made, intended for embroidering, and some also 
for sewing shoes and gloves, but none of them mak- 
ing a firm, secure, and satisfactory stitch. The task of 
accomplishing this was left for Elias Howe. 

From the time he heard the men talking in the 
shop Howe was haunted with the idea. In the evening, 
after his day's work was done, he would sit for hours 
in his humble home, watching his wife's busy fingers 
as her needle went in and out through the cloth, and 
thinking deeply as he sat. Up to this time, through 
all the ages, the hand of woman had been the one 
sewing machine, and his first idea was to make a 
machine that would work like the fingers of a seam- 
stress. For a year he watched and worked, trying 
various devices, but in the end he gave this project 
up. He saw that a stitch of a different kind was needed. 

His constant thought at length bore fruit. A single 
thread evidently would not do. It would not hold. 
If broken it would ravel out. All previous machines 
had used one thread, but to do work that would hold 
two threads were needed. He was now on the right 
track, that of the lock stitch. The idea came to him 



HEROES OF PROGRESS i6l 

of using a needle with an eye near the point, passing 
through the cloth and making a loop in the thread, 
and a shuttle carrying another thread and darting back- 
ward and forward, carrying its thread through the 
loop and locking the stitch by the joint movements 
of needle and shuttle. 

It was a happy idea. It contained the principle 
on which the sewing-machine of to-day is based. It 
it true that there are single thread sewing-machines 
now in use which make a stitch that is all right if 
the thread does not break ; but it is all wrong if it does. 
The shuttle was Howe's great invention, and it is the 
life of the sewing machine. 

But it is one thing to have an idea in the mind, and 
another thing to make it work in wood and metal. 
Feeble in health, empty in pocket, the young inventor 
had a difficult task before him. His father could 
not help him, for he was as poor as himself. Finally 
he found a friend who believed in his idea, and who 
had money. This was George Fisher, a Cambridge 
wood and coal dealer, who agreed to give Mr. Howe 
and his family a home and food and to furnish him 
with five hundred dollars for his experiments. For 
this he was to have a half interest in the invention, 
if one should be made. 

At last poor Howe had the opportunity to work out 
his ideas. The garret of Fisher's house was his 
workshop, and there he toiled diligently day after day, 
his day often running f-^r into the night. For a great 
part of the year he kept at it, planning and devis- 
ing, trying various ways of m'aking his needle and 
shuttle work, experimenting in a dozen directions. 
Finally, in April, 1845, ^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^ ^^^ perfected that 
it would sew a seam, and in July he proved what it 
n 



i62 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

could do by making with his machine a suit of woolen 
clothes for himself and another for Mr. Fisher. Suc- 
cess was at length attained. Crude as the machine 
was, it contained the essential features of the splendid 
machines made to-day. 

Howe's needle was a great invention, without which 
no sewing-machine would be available. So was his 
shuttle. The two together made the firmest of stitches. 
His needle at first worked horizontally, and the cloth 
was passed vertically through the machine. But it was 
not long before the needle was set to work vertically, 
and the cloth was laid upon the table of the machine, 
with devices to move it at proper speed under the 
needle. This done, victory was gained. 

So far the difficulties had been workshop labor. 
Now the inventor had a fight with the world before 
him, and he found it a terrible one. The machine was 
completed, it was patented, it was offered to the tailor- 
ing trade, but nobody would buy it. Tailors looked 
at it, saw it work, said that it was no doubt very 
ingenious and might be useful — but they would not 
buy it. It was costly, and might soon get out of order. 
And if successful, think of the thousands of men and 
women it would throw out of work ! In the end Mr. 
Fisher got tired of keeping Howe and his family for 
his interest in a machine that would not sell, and the 
older Mr. Howe was obliged to take them in. He was 
too poor to support them, and Elias got a place as rail- 
road engineer, and the precious machine was banished 
to a corner. As for Fisher, in the end he grew to look 
so contemptuously on the invention that he was ready 
to sell his half interest in it for a small sum, and Howe 
succeeded in regaining possession of the whole. 

As soon as he had saved a little money, Elias sent his 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 163 

brother Amasa to England with the model of his 
machine, to see if it could be introduced there. Amasa 
made some sort of arrangement with a corset-maker, 
and Elias, with new hope, set off with his wife and 
children for London, trusting to find a market for his 
wares. But it was the same story over again. 
Everywhere he met with discouragement and disap- 
pointment. The corset-maker did not treat him fairly, 
his money ran very low, and he was forced to send his 
wife and children back again to his father, staying 
himself in London in hope of better luck. 

No luck came, his last dollar was spent, and in the 
end he had to pawn his model and patent papers for 
money enough to bring him home again. He landed in 
New York, and there received the distressing news that 
his wife was dying of consumption in Cambridge. 

The poor fellow had not money enough to pay rail- 
road fare, he was too weak to walk, and he had to 
stay where he was until some one sent him money 
enough to bring him home to his dying wife. He 
reached Cambridge barely in time to see her alive. 
Soon the spirit of the faithful wife and mother, whose 
busy needle had formed the inspiration for his machine, 
passed away and left him almost heart-broken. 

It may well be that poor Howe wished he could 
follow her himself and give up the fight. It was now 
1849. Several years had been spent in America 
and England in destitution and constant disappoint- 
ment ; his labor, his time, his talent, had gone for 
nothing; ill health had been his companion, death had 
removed his wife, he and his children were a charge 
upon his father, many of his friends thought that he 
had wasted his life in useless fancies ; the outlook was 
enough to make him despair. 



i64 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

But there came a change in the tide of events. The 
inventor found friends ready to advance him money 
for a purpose next to be mentioned, and for the first 
time fortune began to smile on him. No doubt it 
was a bitter thought to him that the good wife who had 
shared his days of misery was not with him now that 
hope w^as rising in his sky. 

The fact was that while he was in England his 
invention had been pirated in America, machines had 
been made on the principle discovered by him, and 
their makers, more fortunate than he, had found 
buyers for them. He came home to learn that his name 
was growing famous and his invention was fast com- 
ing into use. There were various inventors who 
had made improvements upon it, but all of them used 
his ideas in some form or other and were infringing 
upon his patent. He thereupon, aided by his friends, 
began a series of lawsuits against those who were 
using the ideas to which he had given years of his 
life, and especially against a Mr. Singer who was 
making money by selling an improvement upon his 
machine. 

The battle in the courts was long and hard. The 
pirates fought fiercel3^ Among other things they 
unearthed a machine which had been worked upon by 
a Walter Hunt of New York about 1832, in which 
the lock-stitch was to be employed. But it was 
proved that this had been a dead failure, and in 1854 
the courts decided in Howe's favor, ordering all the 
pirates to pay him a royalty on every machine they 
had made or should make. Thus, after ten years of 
desperate work, the inventor attained success. 

He had opened a small factory in New York, but 
his royalties now began to pour money upon him 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 165 

much faster than his sales, and his total income from 
them amounted in time to over $2,000,000. He lived 
to see the machine to which he had given the best 
years of his life accepted as one of the world's great- 
est inventions, while honors were showered upon him. 
Among these were the Cross of the Legion of Honor, 
which came to him from France, and a gold medal from 
the French Exposition. 

In 1861 he raised and equipped at his own expense 
a regiment for the Civil War, in which he served as 
a private until ill health compelled him to resign. His 
labors, his long anxiety and privation, his naturally frail 
constitution, were now telling upon him, and two years 
after the war, on the 3d of October, 1867, the famous 
inventor died. 



CYRUS H. Mccormick, the bene- 
factor OF THE FARMER 

At Walnut Grove, Virginia, on February 15, 1809, 
was born a boy who lived to become one of the great- 
est benefactors of the farmer ever born in any land. 
This was Cyrus Hall McCormick, the inventor of the 
reaping machine. Such a machine had long been 
needed. Reaping by hand was slow and back-breaking 
work, and something was wanted that would cut and 
gather grain swiftly and economically. While young 
McCormick was a schoolboy, his father was trying to 
invent such a machine, but was making a very poor 
job of it. The boy spent much of his time on the 
plantation, helping in the fields or occupying himself 
in the saw and grist mills, the carpenter and black- 
smith shops, which were on the plantation. All this 
interested him, for the spirit of invention was in his 
blood. 

He showed this when only fifteen years old by mak- 
ing a light, easily-handled grain cradle, much better 
fitted to his weight than the heavy cradles then in use. 
Two years after this he produced a hill-side plough 
with the special feature that it was self-sharpening, a 
new feature in a plough. The boy's inventive powers 
were developing. He watched his father working upon 
the reaper, and when the latter gave it up in disgust, he 
asked permission to try his hand on it. " You would 
only waste your time," said the father. '' The thing 
has been tried a hundred times, and no one has brought 
166 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 167 

out anything worth talking about. A reaper is an im- 
possibiHty." 

Young McCormick did not think so. He was ahnost 
a man then, and his ideas were ripening. " All right,'* 
said his father at length. '' There is my old failure. 
Take hold of it and see what you can do with it. Let 
us see if you are smarter than your father." 

The boy took hold of the machine, studied it, in- 
vestigated it, considered its difficulties, and found 
that, as his father had said, that particular reaper was 
impossible. But a different one might be made. Grad- 
ually he worked out in his active brain a new plan. 
There were several things to be done. The standing 
grain was to be held in a body and cut, and there 
must be a platform upon which it could fall and be 
taken care of. 

He decided that the cutting must be done with a 
sort of shears, arranged in a series and acting right and 
left with what is called a reciprocating motion as the 
machine moved forward. There must be a reel to 
gather and hold the grain, the sharp-edged blades to 
cut it, and a platform upon which it could fall and be 
gathered into bundles or sheaves. These were the 
ideas ; how they were to be applied was the problem. 

The inventor went to work, experimenting, devising, 
thinking out point after point. Every part of the 
machine was made by his own hands, the cranks, the 
gears, the cutting blades, the gathering reels, the 
various other devices ; he fitting them, putting them 
together, and finally sending his machine into the 
field to see what it could do. It did not work badly for 
a beginning. A man rode on the horse that drew the 
machine through the grain. Another man walked be- 
side it to draw the swaths from the platform. No 



i68 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

doubt the elder McCormick looked on with curious 
interest, but we do not know what he said. 

In 183 1 — the inventor was then twenty-two years 
old — the first public trial of the machine was made. A 
number of experienced farmers looked on while it cut 
its way with considerable speed through several acres 
of oats. The next year it was tried in a wheat field, and 
harvested seventy-five acres. So far it was a success, 
but the farmers did not approve of it sufiiciently to 
buy it, and McCormick set it aside for the time being, 
going into the iron-smelting business, in which he saw 
better promise of quick returns. 

The panic of 1837 and the hard times that followed 
wrecked this enterprise, and the best he could do was 
to get out of the affair without money but free from 
debt. Then he turned back to the reaper, saw at once 
where it could be improved, tinkered with it for a 
time, then moved west with it, first to Cincinnati and 
afterwards to Chicago. Here he set up factories for 
the manufacture of the machine. 

It was about 1840 that he got the reaper in what 
he thought satisfactory working order, and began to 
push it on the market. Buyers were found, the farmers 
saw the advantage of the new machine, and after he 
had gained a good business in this country he went 
abroad with the purpose of introducing his reapers into 
the fields of Europe. In 185 1 he showed it at the 
World's Fair at London, where it was looked upon as 
the queer production of a Yankee crank. The news- 
papers and visitors made no end of fun of the odd- 
looking machine, which the London Times said seemed 
like a cross between an Astley chariot, a wheelbarrow, 
and a flying machine. 

A few weeks later the laugh was on the other side. 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 169 

The reaper was tested in a number of English grain 
fields, in competition with some other machines, and 
left them all so far in the rear that there was an 
utter change of front, the McCormick reaper being 
voted the most important thing in the whole fair. The 
Times made atonement for its former ridicule by say- 
ing that the reaper was equal in value to the whole 
exhibition. Among all the agricultural implements 
shown, this alone received the great medal, and the 
lately ridiculed man was rewarded with the highest 
honors, as having done more for agriculture than any 
other man of the century. France matched England 
by honoring him with the Cross of the Legion of 
Honor. Some years later it bestowed the greater 
honor of making him an officer of the Legion of 
Honor and a member of the French Academy of 
Science. 

McCormick was more than an inventor. He was a 
business man, which many inventors are not. While 
manufacturing and selling his reaper he kept on im- 
proving it till it become the wonderful machine of 
to-day, cutting grass and grain alike, gathering the 
grain into sheaves, binding them with twine, and lay- 
ing them on the ground. And all this it does itself, 
without stopping, and with only one man to manage it, 
the man who drives the horses. 

Before McCormick went to Europe he had gained a 
large business in America. In 1848 he took the great 
risk, for a man of moderate capital, of building 
seven hundred m.achines for the coming harvest. But 
they were all sold, and he could well smile at the com- 
ments of the London press in 185 1. In 1880, after the 
business had been in operation more than thirty years, 
it was made into a joint-stock company, with Mr. 



170 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

McCormick as president, and his brother, who had long 
been his partner, as vice-president. 

Four years later, on May 13, 1884, Mr. McCormick 
died. At that time the company had a capital of three 
million dollars, and was turning out nearly fifty-five 
thousand machines a year, these being sold in all parts 
of the world. It is largely due to this great machine 
that the United States outstrips the world as a grain 
producer, and that the hay-harvest has grown to be 
one of the most valuable of our farm crops. Cyrus 
McCormick ranks among the greatest benefactors of 
mankind. 



CHARLES GOODYEAR, THE PRINCE OF 
THE RUBBER INDUSTRY 

The stories of Morse of the telegraph and Howe 
of the sewing-machine are remarkable examples of per- 
severance under difficulties that would crush a common 
man. The story of Charles Goodyear, which we have 
next to tell, is one of the same kind. No man ever 
kept up his spirit longer under trials and troubles than 
this great discoverer, winning success where thousands 
would have failed. The story of his life is that of the 
India-rubber industry. His labors in this took more 
than ten years of the prime of his life. For it he 
suffered poverty, imprisonment, and ridicule,^ and, 
though he produced one of the great modern indus- 
tries, he failed to gain an adequate return in money for 
his great sacrifice. Fortune did not come to him as 
it did to Morse and Howe, and he had largely to be 
content with the satisfaction of helping mankind. 

The sap of the India-rubber tree long held out a 
promising lure to inventors. It formed a waterproof 
material which could readilv be moulded into almost 
any shape, and in the first half of the last century many 
companies were organized for the manufacture of 
shoes and other rubber goods. But there was one 
great difficulty, the rubber was fit for use in wmter, 
but it would not bear the summer's heat, softening and 
becoming useless. 

In the opinion of certain manufacturers of India- 
rubber life-preservers in 1834, the business was al- 
most hopeless. They would make a large quantity of 

171 



172 HEROES OE PROGRESS 

goods during the winter and sell them for good 
prices, but in the summer many of these melted down 
and were returned as ruined. The rubber would grow 
sticky in the sun and stiff in the cold. Many efforts 
had been made to overcome this by mixing other 
materials with it, but all in vain, and ruin seemed to 
stare all rubber manufacturers in the face. The man 
who saved them from this fate was Charles Good- 
year, a merchant of Philadelphia, but a native of 
New Haven, Connecticut, in which city he was born 
on the 29th of December, 1800. 

At the time mentioned he was engaged in the hard- 
ware business of A. Goodyear & Sons in the Quaker 
City. At this period a very large business had sprung 
up in the rubber trade, in spite of its disadvantages, 
and he grew interested in it as a possible source of 
profit. When in New York one day he bought one 
of the India-rubber life-preservers made by the Rox- 
bury Rubber Co., the manufacturers above spoken 
of. Having the taste for invention of a true son of 
Connecticut, he took this home, examined it carefully, 
and fancied that he could improve upon it. He soon 
devised a plan, which he took to the Roxbury Company 
and asked them to adopt. They declined to do so, 
telling him the story of their difficulties in some such 
words as those above given. 

'' Your plan is a good one," he was told, " but busi- 
ness conditions will not let us take on new expenses. 
If you can only find some way to make India-rubber 
stand the heat of summer and the cold of winter, both 
our fortunes will be made. Anything less than that 
will be of no use to us." 

Here was an idea, thrown out as a mere suggestion, 
but it was one that sank deep into Charles Goodyear's 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 173 

mind. But he was very poorly fitted to work it out. 
A chemical process was needed, and he knew almost 
nothing of chemistry. In fact, he had little education 
of any kind. Money was wanted, and he was scantily 
provided with that. The failure of some business 
houses about this time made his father's firm bank- 
rupt, and he, as a member of the firm, was arrested and 
imprisoned for debt. 

Those were the years in which a debtor could be 
put in prison, and during the several years following 
Goodyear spent much of his time in jail. He had a 
family, he was in poor health, he needed to do some- 
thing that would make him a living, but he had grown 
so infatuated with the idea of discovering the secret 
of a marketable India-rubber that he could think of 
nothing else. 

Rubber was abundant enough in those days, and he 
was able easily to get it even when in prison. He was 
constantly engaged in experiments with it, whether in 
prison or out. His friends, who aided him at first, 
soon grew tired of encouraging him in what they 
deemed his infatuation. His ignorance of chemistry 
was much against him, and though he explained his 
difficulty to the chemists of his city, none of them were 
able to help him. 

If Charles Goodyear lacked money, there was one 
thing he had in abundance — perseverance. He never 
gave up. Persuasion, argument, ridicule, had no effect 
upon him. He tried endless experiments, made India- 
rubber fabrics of various kinds, and, with a native taste 
for art, ornamented some of them. It was this that 
led to his first step towards success. 

He had bronzed the surface of some rubber drapery, 
and, finding his bronze too heavy, poured aquafortis 



174 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

on it to eat some of it away. The acid did its work 
too well, removing all the bronze and discoloring 
the fabric, so that he threw it away as spoiled. Think- 
ing over it some days later, he picked up the discarded 
piece and examined it again, and was delighted to 
find it much improved in quality, it bearing heat far 
better than any he had tried before. Here was some- 
thing learned. He hastened to patent his new process, 
and, gaining some money, he engaged in the manu- 
facture of rubber treated with aquafortis. 

But his troubles were not yet at an end. People had 
grown sick of India-rubber, which had ruined many 
firms that had engaged in it, and no capitalists cared 
to touch it. As for Goodyear himself, many began 
to think that he had become so possessed with his 
idea that he was little better than a crazy man. His 
enthusiasm for his rubber was such that he wore whole 
suits made of it, coat, cap, shoes, and all, and made 
himself a walking advertisement. He talked of it so 
incessantly that people felt like running away from 
him. It was " rubber, rubber, rubber," all day long, 
till many voted him a nuisance. 

All this time he was suffering from poverty, and the 
pawnbroker and he grew much too well acquainted. 
His family suffered as well, and want ruled in the 
Goodyear household. After a time he persuaded some 
of the members of the old Roxbury Company to invest 
in his new discovery, and a new factory was started, 
which for a time did a large business. Then it was 
found that the aquafortis hardened the surface only, 
and that the rest of the rubber would not bear the 
heat. At once the business fell off, the Roxbury men 
withdrew their funds, and the inventor sank into des- 
titution again. 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 175 

His friends now did their utmost to persuade him to 
give up his fruitless work. His wife and children did 
the same. But they advised and persuaded in vain. 
He would not yield. Through all he was working 
blindly, handicapped by his small knowledge of chem- 
istry, and simply making chance experiments, but for 
all this he kept on. Luck came through an assistant of 
his who had tried the effect of mixing the gum with 
sulphur. This was a new process, not tried before by 
Goodyear, and he studied it thoroughly, working at 
it for months, but with very unsatisfactory results. 
Yet the end was near at hand. Chance helped him 
where science had failed. One day in 1839 a mass of 
gum and sulphur he had mixed happened to touch a 
red-hot stove. To his surprise and delight, its char- 
acter was changed by the heat and it would not melt. 
He tried and tested it in every way he could think of, 
and always with the same result. He had penetrated 
the mystery. The great secret was his ! All that was 
needed was to mix the gum with sulphur and expose 
it to great heat. It would afterwards stand both heat 
and cold. 

For five years the indefatigable investigator had been 
steadily at work, in prison and out, in poverty and 
want, under every discouragement, enduring the rid- 
icule of the public, the reproaches of friends and family, 
the insults of those who touched their heads signifi- 
cantly when they looked at him. He had at last won 
out, as the saying is ; the great discovery of vulcanized 
rubber was his, and fortune at length seemed to lie in 
his path. 

Yet it did not come quickly. Six years more of 
severe labor and hard trials were before him. He 
did not propose to act hastily again, as he had with his 



176 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

former discovery. He spent these years in new experi- 
ments, working out one thing after another, perfecting 
this point and that, and taking out a patent on every- 
thing achieved, until he had sixty patents in all, cover- 
ing every step he had made. 

Unfortunately, his patents were confined to America. 
Other parties secured in England and France the rights 
which should have been his, litigation was needed at 
home to protect his rights, and his profits from his 
valuable discovery were far smaller than they should 
have been. But honors came to him from many 
sources. From the Crystal Palace Exhibition of 185 1 
he received the Grand Council medal, and at the Paris 
Exposition of 1855 the emperor gave him the Grand 
Medal of Honor and the Cross of the Legion of Honor. 
But disease had attacked the discoverer. Returning 
to America in 1858, he went to work energetically to 
perfect his processes, but his ills had become chronic, 
and death came two years later, on July i, i860. 

" He lived," says Parton, " to see his material applied 
to nearly five hundred uses, and to give employment, 
in England, Germany, France, and the United States, 

to sixty thousand persons Art, science and 

humanity are indebted to him for a material which 
serves the purposes of them all, and serves them as no 
other known material could." 



DE WITT CLINTON, THE FATHER OF 
THE ERIE CANAL 

In October, 1825, the close of the first quarter of the 
nineteenth century was made notable by a spectacular 
event. At Buffalo, on the western border of the State 
of New York, the sluice-way was opened that closed 
the mouth of the Erie Canal, and the waters of Lake 
Erie rushed into this vast excavation, much the great- 
est example of engineering work the country had then 
seen. This was before the days of the electric telegraph, 
and a novel system of telegraphing was adopted to 
convey the news to the eagerly awaiting people of 
New York City. A row of cannon, about five miles 
apart, was arranged along the canal, and these were 
fired in succession as fast as the sound traveled from 
one to the next in line, so that in a very short time 
the news was sent across the State and made its way 
from Buffalo to New York. 

Then a triumphal barge was launched on the canal, 
carrying Governor Clinton, the great patron of the 
work, over the three hundred and sixty-three miles 
from Buffalo to Albany and thence down the Hudson 
River to New York, the people of the State gathering 
in multitudes to cheer him as he passed. He brought 
with him a keg of water from Lake Erie, which was 
poured with pomp and ceremony into the waters of 
New York Bay, thus accomplishing the marriage of 
the lake with the ocean. It was the final test of a 
great success, that which linked the Great Lakes with 
the Atlantic at the Hudson's mouth. 



12 



177 



178 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

The canal was a work of the noblest economic im- 
portance. Before its opening it cost ten dollars and 
took three weeks to transport a barrel of flour over- 
land from Buffalo to Albany. By way of the canal it 
could be sent through in a week, at a cost of thirty 
cents. To-day grain boats follow each other in one 
continuous line, day and night, along the canal, while 
a like procession of boats laden with merchandise 
traverses its waters in the opposite direction. 

De Witt Clinton, to whose energy and enterprise our 
country owes this great achievement, was born at Little 
Britain, New York, March 2, 1769. He came from a 
distinguished colonial family, his grandfather being 
Colonel Charles Clinton and his father General James 
Clinton, a prominent officer in the French and Indian 
and the Revolutionary Wars. His uncle, George Clin- 
ton, was a member of the Continental Congress ; voted 
for the Declaration of Independence, though military 
duties prevented him from being present to sign it ; was 
the first governor of New York, and held that office for 
eighteen years ; and was elected Vice-President of the 
United States under Jefferson in 1804, and again under 
Madison in 1808. 

As may be seen from his ancestry, De Witt Clinton 
was born to a prominent position in New York, if he 
should prove capable of filling it. As it was, he showed 
himself an able statesman, and his whole life was spent 
in the public service. A boy patriot in the Revolution, 
he graduated at Columbia College in 1786, and studied 
law, though he afterwards had very little opportunity 
to practice it. 

His public career began in or about 1790, as private 
secretary for his uncle, Governor George Clinton. 
Though then only twenty-one years of age, he quickly 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 179 

became active in public affairs. We are told that " the 
life of Clinton was from this moment one of political 
strife, into which he threw all the force of his ardent 
temperament and brilliant talents." In the course of 
some years he rose from one political position to 
another, entering the legislature in 1797, the State 
Senate in 1798, and being elected a Senator of the 
United States in 1801 or 1802. Politically, he was a 
member of the Anti-Federalist party, and shortly rose 
to be the leader of the Democratic party in New York. 

As a member of the Senate Clinton showed himself 
an orator of commanding eloquence, his most notable 
speech being one on the navigation of the Mississippi 
River, the leading question of that day. In this he 
opposed a war with Spain, which country had closed 
that river against American shipping. Soon after- 
wards this question was settled amicably, President 
Jefferson purchasing the Mississippi and all the terri- 
tory through which it ran, and making the whole of it 
a part of the United States. 

In 1803 Mr. Clinton was elected Mayor of the city of 
New York, then a post of high importance, for the 
Mayor was President of the Council and Chief Judge 
of the Common Pleas and Criminal Courts. In the 
words of Professor Renfrew, " He was on all sides 
looked up to as the most rising man in the Union." He 
served as Mayor at successive intervals until 1814, the 
city growing prosperous under his administrations. 
Among the institutions fostered by him were the His- 
torical Society, the Academy of Fine Arts, and the first 
orphan asylum of the city. He favored other institu- 
tions, and devoted much time and thought to the found- 
ing of free schools, public libraries, and other aids to 
the education of the people. 



i8o HEROES OF PROGRESS 

In the early years of the century he found his chief 
poHtical rival in Aaron Burr, then one of the ablest and 
most unscrupulous politicians of the country. After the 
discredit of Burr, Daniel D. Tompkins, a man who 
excelled in gaining the favor of the people, became his 
competitor for control of the Democratic party. Clin- 
ton vi^as deficient in the art of currying favor. A man 
of stately and often haughty bearing, v^ith a hasty 
temper which at times got him into needless difficulties, 
he had only his fine powers as an orator and his many 
acts of kindness to depend upon. But these won him 
many friends, and in spite of all the harm his political 
enemies — the Tammany Party — could do him, there 
was not a poor man in New York but looked upon him 
as a friend, and he held the people's love till his death. 

CHnton had the laudable ambition which has affected 
many worthy statesmen since his time, that of becoming 
President of the United States, and he had made him- 
self so prominent that in 1812 he was a candidate 
against President Madison for the Presidency, gaining 
the electoral vote of nearly all the New England and 
Middle States. He was defeated by a vote of one 
hundred and twenty-eight to eighty-nine. He lost 
favor in a measure by his disagreement with the Presi- 
dent about the War of 181 2, though his opposition to 
it was solely on the basis that the country was ill pre- 
pared for such a w^ar. The event proved that he was 
right in this. 

For two of the years In which Clinton was Mayor, 
1811-13, he was also Lieutenant-Governor of the State, 
and in 1817 he was elected Governor by an almost un- 
animous vote. The great question of the campaign was 
that of the projected Erie Canal, the need of which the 
State of New York was feeling more and more strongly 



HEROES OF PROGRESS i8i 

as the years passed on and population increased. This 
was before the era of the railroads. Had they existed 
at that time, the canal would never have been made. 
But the growth of the lake trade, and the difficulty of 
carrying grain and merchandise in wagons over the 
whole length of the State, called for some cheaper and 
easier method, and the question of a canal grew prom- 
inent in the popular thought and talk. 

The idea of excavating a canal from the lakes to the 
Hudson was not a new one. It had been germinating 
since early in the century. Seven commissioners had 
been appointed in 1809 to examine and survey a route 
for such a canal, and Mayor Clinton was one of these. 
The need of it grew more urgent as time went on, but 
the magnitude and great cost of the work stood in its 
way. In 18 17 the canal was the great State question 
of the day, and Clinton stood as its candidate. In 
the spring of that year, largely through his influ- 
ence, the legislature passed a bill authorizing the 
canal, and on the 4th of July, 18 17, the great work 
which was to become his chief title to fame was begun. 

It called for heavy taxation, many did not believe 
it possible, and a powerful party, called " Bucktails," 
arose, who denounced the project as visionary and 
ridiculous. '' Clinton's big ditch " it was called in 
derision, and this title became a standing joke in the 
opposing newspapers. It was utterly absurd, they 
said, to think of digging a canal across three hundred 
and sixty miles of territory, through unbroken forests, 
over hills, against difficulties innumerable. It was in- 
credible that boats could make their way from the lakes 
to the sea across such a country. But in spite of all 
this Clinton went on with the work. 

In 1820 Clinton's old rival, Daniel D. Tompkins, was 



i82 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

on the opposition ticket, and though he was re-elected, 
his opponents gained majorities in both branches of 
legislature. The canal policy had been the great issue 
of the campaign, and the work became blocked by a 
refusal to vote money for its prosecution. In 1822 he 
declined to run for the office, and in 1824 his adver- 
saries, who had come into power, removed him from 
the office of Canal Commissioner. This excited the 
indignation of the people, who regarded Clinton as the 
father of the canal, and in the election of that year he 
was made Governor again by a majority of 16,000, the 
largest that any candidate had ever received in the 
State. 

Meanwhile the canal went on, slowly but surely, 
now halting, now hasting, in its career, its construction 
sustained throughout by the perseverance and energy of 
Governor Clinton. The task was an immense one, 
well calculated to frighten a sparse and poor popula- 
tion. For eight years it employed an army of laborers, 
who cut down forests, blasted a channel through rock, 
carried the bed up seemingly impassable hills by the 
aid of locks, conveyed it over rivers in aqueducts, 
keeping on indefatigably until 1825, when the last 
spadeful of earth was lifted, the sluices were opened, 
water was let into the " ditch," and Governor Clinton 
made his triumphal tour by water across the length of 
the State. 

He could well be proud of it, for it was his. With- 
out his far-seeing enterprise it might never have been 
possible to carry it to completion. Clinton was 
the hero of the day. Men who had called him a 
visionary idiot were now loud in his praises. Bon- 
fires, fireworks, processions, and speeches were the 
order of the day, and when the victor appeared in 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 183 

New York with his keg of Lake Erie water, the whole 
city rose to do him honor and went wild with enthu- 
siasm. In 1825 he was offered by President Adams 
the honorable post of Minister to England. This 
he declined, and the next year was re-elected Governor 
by a rousing majority. Pie was now the most popular 
man in the State. He lived to see the canal a great 
success, dying suddenly at Albany, in the Governor's 
chair, February 11, 1828. 

Even to-day, with all the great engineering works 
of the age, the Erie Canal does not appear a small 
affair. It seemed stupendous in those days, when the 
country was young and poor, and when much of the 
state was an unbroken and largely unknovv^n wilder- 
ness. It was a great credit to the foresight and indefat- 
igable energy of De Witt Clinton, and has since been 
of immeasurable benefit to the State of New York. 
as it stands to-day, its length is given as 365I/2 rniles ; 
its width from 53 to 79 feet at the bottom and 70 to 98 
at the top ; its depth from 7^ to 9^ feet. Its total 
rise above sea-level is 6563^ feet, this height being 
overcome by the use of numerous locks. Despite the 
rivalry of the railroad, no thought has arisen of aban- 
doning " Clinton's big ditch." On the contrary, it is 
proposed to increase it in size so that it may carry 
ships instead of barges, and the people of the coming 
future may see grain-bearing vessels or steamers mak- 
ing their way along a deep and wide artificial river 
from end to end of the State of New York. 



HORACE WELLS AND THE DISCOV- 
ERERS OF AN/ESTHESIA 

On the nth of December, 1844, one of the most 
important experiments in the history of the world was 
performed in the office of Dr. Horace Wells, a dentist 
of Hartford, Connecticut. Dr. Wells, as a patient, 
was trying a discovery of his own upon himself. His 
friend, Dr. Riggs, was the experimenter. Dr. Wells 
inhaled a quantity of nitrous oxide gas, went to sleep 
under its effect, and had a large, sound tooth drawn 
out without pain. 

It was a wonderful, phenomenal operation. Never 
before in the history of the world had a surgical opera- 
tion been performed without pain. Untold thousands 
of times in previous years legs and arms had been 
cut off, cancers cut out, and terrible operations of other 
kinds taken place, and in all cases the patient had to 
lie wide awake, often suffering frightful agony. Var- 
ious things had been tried to reduce sensation, but as 
a rule they had done more harm than good, and 
surgeons were afraid to use them. To perform such an 
operation now without making the patient unconscious 
would be thought shameful and barbarous, and it 
seems strange to us that the first time it was success- 
fully done was only sixty years ago. About the same 
time two other American scientists produced anaes- 
thesia by other means, so that the great discovery 
seemed to come at once in several fields. We shall tell 
the storv of these other two when we have told that 
of Dr. Wells. 
184 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 185 

Horace Wells was born in Hartford, Vermont, Jan- 
uary 21, 1815. His parents were well-to-do farmers. 
He was a handsome, active, intelligent boy, and he was 
given a good education. His father dying before his 
school life ended, he completed his education by aid 
of money earned by teaching in district and writing 
schools. As he grew up towards manhood he had 
serious thoughts of studying for the ministry, but 
chose the profession of dentistry instead, and at the 
age of nineteen went to Boston to study for it. 

Not much can be said for the dentistry of that 
period. It was a relic of barbarism, with very little 
of art or skill in its practice. A movement to improve 
it had but recently begun. The first College of Dental 
Surgery in this country was founded in Baltimore in 
1840, and young Wells did not find any very skillful 
professors in Boston in 1834. But he was quick 
and intelligent, made rapid progress in his profession, 
invented many instruments for himself, and was not 
long in practice before he was looked upon as one of 
the most expert of the dentists of Boston. 

Among his inventions was a solder to fasten artifi- 
cial teeth upon the plate, and to manufacture and use 
this he went into partnership with Dr. William Morton. 
Dr. Charles T. Jackson, a noted chemist of Boston, 
gave them a certificate of the purity and value of the 
solder, which was much superior to the imperfect sub- 
stance then in use. Drs. Morton and Jackson were 
the other two discoverers of anaesthesia mentioned, and 
it is worthy of mention that these three benefactors of 
mankind came thus at one time into close association. 

The firm of Wells & Morton did not succeed very 
well, and they soon separated, Morton staying in Bos- 
ton, and Wells opening an office in Hartford, Con- 



i86 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

necticut. While here he gave much time to the thought 
that there might be some means of taking out teeth 
without pain. He was a student of chemistry, and 
from his knowledge of nitrous oxide gas thus learned 
he decided to try this substance. He studied its effect 
upon animals, and when satisfied that it would put them 
to sleep without danger, he decided to make an experi- 
ment upon a man — choosing himself as the man. It 
was this that led to the notable experiment we have 
described, in which his friend, Dr. Riggs, drew out 
one of his teeth with scarcely a trace of pain. 

The most beneficial of discoveries had been made. 
He had given to mankind one of the greatest of bless- 
ings. As the poet and physician, Oliver Wendell 
Holmes, stated it, " The deepest furrow in the knotted 
brow of agony has been smoothed forever." But, like 
nearly all new discoveries, the world was slow to accept 
it. The innovation was too great and sudden. Some 
chemists and doctors wrote and spoke against it, 
and there were ministers who went so far as to 
denounce it on the ground that it was an impious 
meddling with the ways of the Creator, who had sent 
pain to the earth as a discipline and benefit to mankind. 
But it was soon in use by the dentists of Hartford, 
and in no great time made its way to all civilized 
lands. 

Dr. Wells was a handsome and attractive man, 
thoughtful in face, cheerful and cordial in manner, 
his face lighting up in conversation in a bright, pleas- 
ant fashion. He was by nature sensitive, and did not 
make many new acquaintances, confining himself 
chiefly to the society of his special friends. Shortly 
after his discovery failing health obliged him to go 
to Europe for rest and recreation. Here he kept up 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 187 

his studies in colleges and hospitals. To pay his ex- 
penses abroad he imported and sold pictures, and also 
lectured on birds, whose habits he had studied lovingly 
in his early years. 

After returning from Europe, he went to New York 
for the purpose of introducing anaesthetics in the hos- 
pitals there. Morton and Jackson had made known 
their discoveries by that time, and he tried them all, 
finally becoming convinced that chloroform. Dr. Jack- 
son's discovery, was a better anaesthetic than his own. 
He began experimenting with it upon himself, not 
knowing its dangerous character, and continued these 
experiments till his mind was ruined by the perilous 
drug. He had not been a month in New York before, 
in an attack of insanity due to his unwise use of chloro- 
form, he took his own life. He was just past his thirty- 
third year, dying January 24, 1848, a little more than 
three years after the date of his famous discovery. 

On September 30, 1846, Dr. William T. G. Morton, 
of Boston, performed an experiment similar to that 
of Dr. Wells nearly two years before. The substance 
used by him was sulphuric ether. He had convinced 
himself of its safety by trying its effect upon himself, 
and now administered it to a patient, from whose jaws 
he drew a large, double-pronged tooth. To his delight, 
the patient felt no pain, remaining unconscious during 
the operation. Soon after he used it upon a patient at 
the Massachusetts Hospital. A tumor was removed 
from the jaw, a very painful operation in a state of 
consciousness, but the patient felt no pain. A second 
anaesthetic of unmeasured value had been given to 
mankind. 

Dr. Morton was born in Charlton, Massachusetts, 
August 9, 18 19. He entered the new dental college in 



i88 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

Baltimore in 1840, studied there and in Boston, and 
after graduating was for a time in partnership with 
his friend, Dr. Wells. The two men were alike in one 
thing: they were both active in improving the instru- 
ments of their profession, and both eager to discover 
some means of removing teeth without pain. It may 
well be that they had talked of the matter together 
when in partnership, and even begun their studies and 
experiments then. At any rate, we find Dr. Morton 
soon afterwards busy in seeking to discover some pain- 
killing substance. He tried stimulants, giving the 
patient liquor till he was intoxicated. He tried opium. 
He experimented with magnetism. All were of no 
avail. 

One cause of his difficulty was that he knew very 
little about medicines or chemistry, and to overcome 
this he began to attend lectures in the Medical College 
at Boston. It was here he learned that small quan- 
tities of sulphuric ether could be breathed in without 
injury, and that it tended to produce unconsciousness. 
This led him to the successful experiment we have 
mentioned. Sulphuric ether was added to the list of 
pain-dispelling substances. 

Dr. Morton's discovery was no sooner made known 
than it began to be used widely in private institutions 
and by the Government, without regard to his rights. 
He had patented it in the United States and England 
under the name of " Etheon," giving free right to its 
use in charitable institutions, but it was pirated on all 
sides without regard to his patent, and he found it 
impossible to obtain redress. There was a bitter dis- 
pute between him and Dr. Jackson, who claimed to have 
discovered before him that ether was an anaesthetic. 
When the French Academy of Sciences appointed 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 189 

a committee to investigate the merits of the two claim- 
ants, and adjudged a prize of twenty-five hundred francs 
to each, to Dr. Jackson as *' the discoverer of etheriza- 
tion," and to Dr. Morton " for the appHcation of this 
discovery to scientific operations," Morton refused to 
receive his award. Some years later, in 1852, the 
Monyton gold medal prize in medicine and surgery 
was awarded to him. 

He continued to maintain his claim for years, appeal- 
ing to Congress for his rights under his patent, 
though the struggle became so ruinous to his business 
that even his home was attached by the sheriff. A 
committee of physicians appointed by Congress re- 
ported that the merit of the discovery was his, and 
Congress subsequently made a like acknowledgment, 
but the appropriation voted upon for him was lost. In 
1858 he won a lawsuit before the United States Court 
for an infringement upon his patent. But all this 
brought him in no money, the royalties were never 
paid, and the contest ruined him. He finally became a 
farmer, engaged in importing and raising fine cattle, 
and died July 15, 1868. 

Coming now to the third discoverer of anaesthesia, 
Dr. Charles Thomas Jackson, we may say that he 
was born in Plymouth, Massachusetts, June 21, 1805, 
and became a noted chemist and geologist. He 
studied medicine at Harvard, graduating at twenty- 
four, but did not gain any special distinction as a 
doctor, his time and attention being given to miner- 
alogy, geology, and chemistry, in which he became 
famous. He was geologist in succession for Maine, 
Rhode Island, and New Hampshire, taking an active 
part in studying the geological and mineral condi- 
tions of those States, as also of the wilderness of 



I90 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

northwest New York. He had, shortly after grad- 
uating, spent several years studying in Paris, and in- 
vestigating the geological conditions of several parts 
of Europe. His return was made on the ship " Sully," 
and among his fellow passengers was Professor S. F. 
B. Morse. It was Dr. Jackson who told him of the 
electrical experiments he had seen in Paris, and thus 
put in Morse's mind the idea which afterwards led to 
the invention of the electric telegraph. 

It was not until after Drs. Wells and Morton had 
made public their discoveries that Jackson claimed to 
have made the discovery of anaesthetics many years 
before. He said that in the year 1834 he had found 
that chloroform dissolved in alcohol and put into an 
aching tooth would deaden the pain. He also studied 
other substances, especially sulphuric ether. Once in 
his experiments he breathed by accident chlorine gas 
into his lungs. This gave him so much pain that he 
inhaled the vapor of ether, hoping for relief. The 
relief was so quick and great that he made up his mind 
that a surgical operation might be performed without 
pain under the influence of ether. This was about the 
year 1846, the year of Morton's discovery. Dr. Jack- 
son did not try ether on others, and he did not make his 
discovery about chloroform known till this time. But 
his scientific standing was so high that many took his 
word for it. Most of the physicians of Boston believed 
in his claim, and great honor was given him abroad, 
orders and decorations coming to him from the govern- 
ments of France, Sweden, Prussia, Turkey, and Sar- 
dinia. The Academy of Sciences of France, as above 
stated, awarded him a prize of twenty-five hundred 
francs for his discovery. 

Dr. Jackson had won a wide reputation as a geologist 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 191 

and mineralogist, and had become very prominent as 
a chemist, making important practical studies upon the 
cotton and tobacco plants and other American products. 
His bitter contest with Dr. Morton, however, over what 
he looked upon as the most important of his discoveries, 
was a severe strain upon him, and this, combined with 
his devotion to difficult studies and experiments, may 
have been the cause of the mental failure which came 
upon him in his later years. The last seven years of 
his life were passed in an asylum for the insane. He 
died August 29, 1880. 

The controversy which arose between the three dis- 
coverers of anaesthesia made life unhappy for all of 
them. It was mainly due to the combative disposition 
of Dr. Morton, and his determination to assert his 
rights. Of them all, so far as public announcement 
of their discoveries was made, Dr. Wells stood first, 
and to him belongs the honor of first making known 
to the world a means of deadening pain in surgical 
operations. But this is a matter of minor importance, 
and the echoes of the hot controversy over their respec- 
tive claims has long since died away. 

The discoveries came so close together in time that 
they may be looked upon as a threefold one, Dr. Wells 
being given the credit of discovering the pain-deaden- 
ing powers of nitrous oxide, Dr. Jackson of those of 
chloroform, and Drs. Morton and Jackson simulta- 
neously of those of sulphuric ether. This, however, we 
may say, that all these discoverers were Americans, 
natives of New England, and that to our country is 
due, among its many valuable discoveries, the supreme 
one of saving man from the agonies of mortal pain. 



WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON, THE 
GREAT EMANCIPATOR 

On the loth of December, 1805, at Newburyport, 
Massachusetts, was born one of the great leaders in the 
train of events that brought on the Civil War. As 
great a leader on the opposite side was John C. Cal- 
houn, the story of whose life we have given. An 
impressis^e scene, well worth painting, was that in 
which, after the capture of Charleston by the Union 
army, William Lloyd Garrison, the bitter foe of slavery, 
stood beside the grave of Calhoun, its persistent advo- 
cate. These two men, one for, the other against, the 
institution of slavery, had done their utmost in bringing 
about the war which led to its fall, and strange and 
deep must have been the thoughts of Garrison as he 
gazed upon the grave of his former opponent. 

William Lloyd Garrison, as a boy, had to make his 
own way in the world. His father was dead, his 
mother poor. At the age of nine he began to work in a 
shoemaker's shop ; but he gave this up when the oppor- 
tunity came for an education, which he paid for by 
sawing wood and doing odd jobs when out of school. 
Before he was fifteen his school life ended and he 
settled down to work. 

After trying several things, he became an apprentice 
to the printer's trade. At this he not only became a 
good workman, but, like Franklin before him, began 
to write articles, which were printed without his name 
and attracted flattering attention. He was only twenty- 
one when he started a paper of his own, and after this 
192 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 193 

failed he was made editor of The National Philan- 
thropist, a Boston paper devoted to reform, and one 
of the first to take up the temperance cause. 

Reform was in Garrison's blood. The whole current 
of his thoughts ran that way. A year later we find him 
at Bennington, Vermont, editing a little paper that 
advocated peace, temperance, and anti-slavery. All 
this was pioneer work ; he was educating himself in the 
school of reform. His real work began in 1829, when 
he went to Baltimore and became editor of an insignifi- 
cant newspaper called The Genius of Universal 
Emancipation. 

This was published by a mild little Quaker named 
Benjamin Lundy. It advocated the gradual eman- 
cipation of slaves, but had so little sting in it that few 
paid any attention to its diatribes. Lundy did not like 
this. He wanted more vitality in his paper. He had 
read some of Garrison's articles, and judged they were 
the stuff he needed. So he trudged on foot from Balti- 
more to Bennington, — there were no railroads then, — 
called on Garrison, and asked him to go to Baltimore 
and edit his paper. 

The new editor's touch gave it life. The wasp had 
found a sting. No one now thought the paper harmless. 
Instead of gradual emancipation, it demanded immedi- 
ate and unconditional emancipation; it denounced slave- 
holders and slave-dealers, and this in a city in which 
slaves were held. Every week it had a column on the 
horrors of the slave system, describing many things 
the editor had seen or heard of in Baltimore itself. 
One slave called on him and showed his back bleeding 
from twenty-seven lash cuts. He had been thus dealt 
with for loading a wagon in a way that did not please 
his overseer. 
13 



194 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

As may be imagined, The Genius now created a sen- 
sation. Garrison's fiery editorials were like so many 
bomb-shells thrown among the Baltimore slave-hold- 
ers. He was sued for libel, foimd guilty, and fined fifty 
dollars and costs. As he was not able to pay the fine 
he was sent to jail. His imprisonment was not severe. 
Friends were allowed to visit him, among them John 
G. Whittier, the anti-slavery poet. After about a month 
and a half Arthur Tappan, a New York merchant with 
views like his own, paid the fine, and he was set free. 

Garrison's imprisonment made a great stir. It was a 
flagrant interference with the liberty of the press. 
Even some Southerners, Henry Clay among them, 
strongly objected to it. But Garrison saw that Balti- 
more was not the city for his work, and he went north 
again, delivering there a course of lectures against 
slavery. 

His lectures were not well received. The anti- 
slavery cause was then exceedingly weak, even in New 
England, the mass of people being opposed to any inter- 
ference with the institution. At Newburyport, his 
native town, and at Boston, the churches were closed 
against him. His lecture in Boston was delivered in 
the hall of a society of infidels. They cared nothing 
for emancipation, but they cared a great deal for free- 
dom of speech. 

Garrison, finding his voice muzzled, turned again to 
his pen. He started a small paper called The Liberator, 
the first number of which appeared on January i, 1831. 
That was an eventful day in the history of slavery, 
for with that first number of The Liberator began a 
fierce campaign which was not to end while a slave 
remained in the land. 

It was an enterprise which needed courage and in- 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 195 

trepidity. Garrison had not a dollar in the world. His 
friend, Isaac Knapp, who became his partner, had little 
more. They worked as type-setters on The Christian 
Examiner, and took their pay in the use of the type 
and presses of The Examiner. All the work on The 
Liberator was done after the regular day's work was 
finished, by Garrison and Knapp. In the first num- 
ber they said they would publish the paper as long as 
they had bread and water to live on, and for a time 
they did live on little more than bread and milk. 

The Liberator soon made itself felt. In its opening 
address Garrison said : '^ I will be as harsh as truth 
and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject 
I do not wish to think or speak or write with modera- 
tion. I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will 
not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — and I 
will be heard !" And he was heard. Some abolitionists 
soon supplied a little money, a small office was taken, 
he and his partner worked, ate, and slept there, and 
The Liberator was launched on its stormy sea. 

The new paper speedily made a sensation. Never 
had the slave system been so vigorously assailed. 
Emancipation of the slaves, without delay, without con- 
ditions, without compensation, was its doctrine. 
Slavery was an utter wrong and sin, and it was the 
duty of every Christian and every man to fight it with 
all his might. Such sentiments, strongly expressed 
week after week, were not long in raising a breeze. 
The Liberator soon found readers, alike among friends 
and foes. It met with much opposition in the North, 
where the great bulk of the people were at that time 
in sympathy with the slave-holders. In the South it 
aroused a torrent of rage. 

It had at this time onlv a small circulation, and 



196 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

even if the slaves had happened to see it, they could 
not have read it. But there was a pictorial heading 
v^ith its story for all, the picture of an auction where 
" slaves, horses, and other cattle " were offered for 
sale, and a whipping post, where a slave was being 
flogged. Back of them was the Capitol at Washington, 
on its dome a flag with the word '* Liberty " upon it. 

Editorials in the Southern papers hotly denounced 
Garrison. Threats of lynching were made. The law 
was appealed to to prevent The Liberator from circu- 
lating in the South. The grand jury of North Carolina 
indicted Garrison for publishing " a paper of seditious 
tendency," and the Assembly of Georgia offered a 
reward of five thousand dollars to any one who would 
bring him to Georgia, prosecute and convict him. 

Garrison's response to this was to found an anti- 
slavery society in New England. In 1833 this society 
sent him to England, where he spoke so vigorously 
about American institutions that on his return he was 
accused of libeling this country. A mob threatened the 
Liberator office. The Mayor of Boston was called 
upon to suppress it, as an agent of mischief. A meet- 
ing which Garrison attended in New York to found an 
anti-slavery society was driven from the hall by a mob. 
Going from there to Philadelphia, he founded in that 
city the American Anti-Slavery Society. 

The most perilous moment in Garrison's life came in 
1835, in consequence of the arrival in Boston of 
George Thompson, a noted English lecturer against 
slavery. His arrival and his attempt to speak led to a 
riot, not of the rabble, but largely made up of " men of 
property and standing," who were determined " to put 
a stop to the impudent, bullying conduct of the foreign 
vagrant, Thompson, and his associates in mischief," 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 197 

A meeting of the Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society, at 
which Thompson was expected to speak, was raided 
by this mob of the genteel of Boston. Luckily for 
Thompson, he was not there. But Garrison was, and 
the rioters laid violent hands on him, pulled him from 
the hall, tore the clothes from his back and dragged 
him through the streets with a rope around his body. 
Their rage would probably have ended in a lynching 
if Mayor Lyman had not rescued their victim and sent 
him to prison as the safest place he could think of. 

This was not the only time in which Garrison was 
threatened and molested in Boston, but nothing 
stopped him in his work. The Liberator continued to 
appear, and not for a moment did it change its tone. 
Its effect was great. The anti-slavery cause grew. The 
societies he had formed began to flourish. In all they 
did he was the leader, his name was on all lips, the 
growing army of emancipation hailed him as its gen- 
eral, almost as its martyr. 

In 1840 he went to England again, to attend there 
the World's Anti-Slavery Convention. Others from 
America came, among them Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth 
Cady Stanton, and other women delegates. But Eng- 
land was innately conservative, and all women were 
refused admission to the hall. As a consequence Garri- 
son, the most distinguished abolitionist in the conven- 
tion, refused to enter. Some years after this he was 
made president of the American Anti-Slavery Society, 
and held that position for twenty-two years, giving 
it up only when slavery had ceased to exist. 

The Liberator hammered away persistently at the 
fetters of the slave, and they began to yield before 
its blows. It even opposed the Union of the States, 
with slavery as one of its institutions, saying that 



198 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

such a Union was " a covenant with death and an 
agreement with hell." He came at length to the 
conviction that slavery could be abolished only by 
a dissolution of the Union. He did not then see 
clearly what was coming, that an attempt to dissolve 
the Union would be made and would fail, but that 
slavery would perish in its failure. 

The Civil War came. The Liberator was still pub- 
lished. Its former tone of denunciation now became a 
tone of appeal to the President, a demand for freedom. 
When emancipation was decreed it became a hearty 
supporter of President Lincoln. In April, 1865, 
Garrison was one of the party that went to Charleston 
to raise the Union flag over the ruins of Fort Sumter, 
from which it had been pulled down four years before. 
It was on this occasion that he stood in brooding 
silence over Calhoun's grave. Both these men had 
fought strongly for what they thought the right. The 
one whose cause had fallen did not live to see the end ; 
the other survived to behold the triumph of his cause. 

Soon after this the last number of The Liberator 
appeared. It had finished its work, and its mission was 
at an end. About the same time a welcome tribute 
was made to the editor, in a purse of thirty thousand 
dollars, to which many distinguished men had con- 
tributed as a mark of their deep appreciation of his 
services in the cause of human freedom. 

The remainder of Garrison's life was passed peace- 
fully. Part of it was spent in Europe, where he was 
received with high respect. In America he was paid 
the highest attention. He was a frequent writer for 
periodicals on political and other subjects, and was 
especially interested in all matters affecting the black 
race. He died in New York City on May 24, 1879. 



WENDELL PHILLIPS, SILVER-TONGUED 
ORATOR AND REFORMER 

Next to William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips 
was the most forceful opponent of the system of 
human slavery in the United States. He was not a 
born reformer, like Garrison. He did not leap into 
the saddle from the start. The feeling of hatred to 
slavery grew in him stage by stage, though when it 
was fully developed he was the mate of Garrison in 
his detestation of the system. These two men did not 
stand alone — there were many who thought as they 
did ; but for years they bore the brunt of the fray, 
keeping the fight alive till the mass of the people of the 
North joined their ranks. 

Wendell Phillips was born in Boston, November 
29, 181 1. He was not born to poverty, like Garrison, 
his father being a man of wealth and distinction, of 
sense and judgment. His wise motto in training his 
children was, "Ask no man to do anything that you 
are not able to do for yourself." Inspired by the spirit 
of this saying, his son Wendell sought to train his 
hands in work, and it is said that by the time he grew 
up there was hardly any trade in New England that he 
did not know something about. 

He began his education in Boston's famous old 
Latin School, and from there went to Harvard Col- 
lege, where he graduated in 183 1. John Lothrop 
Motley, the historian, graduated in the same class, 
and they had the reputation of being two of the hand- 
somest and most elegant young men in Boston, with 

199 



200 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

a place ready for them in the best society. Each had 
been born with a silver spoon in his mouth, to apply 
the old saying, but each found something better to do 
in life than chew upon that spoon. There was work 
to do in the world, and they were the kind of men to 
take their full share of it. 

After his graduation Phillips entered upon a course 
of legal study In the Cambridge Law School, and at 
the age of twenty-three was admitted to practice In 
the Boston courts. This took place in the period when 
the country first began to be stirred up upon the ques- 
tion of the abolition of slavery. For several years 
William Lloyd Garrison had been thundering away 
against slavery in the columns of The Liberator, and a 
band of devoted men and women were gathering 
round him, ardent pioneers in the cause of the liberty 
of the slave ; but the great mass of the people held 
themselves aloof. 

At first Phillips took little interest in this subject. 
He had early shown himself an orator of unusual 
powers, but he was concerned as yet with his pro- 
fession, which probably occupied most of his time and 
thoughts. He had his social duties also, as a young 
man occupying a position In Boston's best society. 
While the demands of the former occupied his busi- 
ness, those of the latter occupied his leisure, hours, 
and the handsome and attractive young lawyer and 
orator had very likely little time for thoughts of 
reform. But he was soon to be awakened. 

What first set him to thinking strongly upon the 
socially tabooed subject of anti-slavery was the attack 
upon Garrison In October, 1835, by the mob of " gen- 
tlemen of property and standing." He doubtless 
looked upon this act as a shameful outrage, and was 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 201 

brought by it into sympathy with the reformers, for 
in the next year, 1834, he became a member of the 
American Anti-Slavery Society. He went farther than 
this in his newly-developed opposition to slavery: he 
relinquished the practice of the law, being unwilling 
to act under an oath to support the Constitution of 
the United States while it recognized the institution 
of slavery. 

Though he took this decided step, he did not be- 
come active in the advocacy of the new cause until 
an event occurred that stirred him to the depths of 
his soul. The anti-slavery sentiment was grow- 
ing all through the North, but the great mass 
of the people were on the side of the slave-hold- 
ers, the abolitionists were few, and their leaders 
were widely insulted and threatened. The hostile feel- 
ing grew to tragic heights in 1837, when Elijah P. 
Lovejoy, publisher of an abolition paper at Alton, 
Illinois, was attacked in his office by a pro-slavery 
mob and murdered while defending his press. 

This murder sent a wave of horror throughout the 
land. It made abolitionists of hundreds who had been 
lukewarm before. In Boston Dr. Channing called a 
meeting of indignation at Faneuil Hall, which was 
attended by many who had been indifferent or even 
opposed to the reform movement, but were not ready 
to countenance murder. Speeches were made de- 
nouncing the murderers, and all seemed of one mind 
about the crime, until Mr. Austin, Attorney-General 
of the State, rose and made a vigorous speech on the 
other side, saying in the course of his remarks that 
Lovejoy had died as the fool dieth, and comparing the 
mob at Alton with the men who threw the tea into 
Boston harbor. 



202 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

There were many in the audience ready to applaud 
these sentiments, and when Wendell Phillips, known 
to be an abolitionist, arose to reply, hisses came from 
the more violent. He was not the man to be cowed by 
a hiss. He began with these stinging words : 

'' When I heard the gentleman lay down principles 
that placed the murderers of Alton side by side with 
Otis and Hancock, with Quincy and Adams, I thought 
these pictured lips " — pointing to their portraits, which 
hung upon the walls — " would have broken into voice 
to rebuke the recreant American, the slanderer of the 
dead ! " 

There were no more hisses. Those words, vibrant 
with the feeling that moved the speaker's heart, took 
the throng captive. They remembered what brought 
them there, indignation against the ruffianly band that 
had murdered an American citizen while defending 
one of America's cherished institutions, the freedom 
of the press. All listened with bated breath as 
Phillips, in a burst of indignant and powerful elo- 
quence, rebuked the sordid spirit of those who dared 
to defend a crime against the liberty of speech and the 
rights of humanity. Rarely had so eloquent a speech 
been heard within those walls, and no doubt it had a 
strong effect upon his hearers. Dr. Channing often 
afterwards spoke of it as " morally sublime." 

From that time on there were no half-way measures 
with Wendell Phillips, no dallying with his subject. 
He gave his whole heart and soul, his wealth, his pro- 
fession, his place in society, for the cause he had made 
his own. The moneyed aristocracy of Boston closed its 
doors against him, but he never faltered. He made 
himself poor by his generous aid to the cause, and de- 
voted to it the greater part of the money he made by 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 203 

lecturing. He even refused to vote or to call himself a 
citizen of the United States so long as its Constitution 
recognized the slave system. His powers of oratory were 
so marked that he drew large audiences wherever he 
appeared, and to hear Wendell Phillips became an 
event in any one's life. The money his lectures 
brought him he scarcely regarded as his own so long 
as the anti-slavery cause stood in need. 

Garrison was an older man than Phillips. He was 
the great anti-slavery pioneer, and the younger man 
looked up to him as his chief. The one with pen, the 
other with voice, ardently advocated the cause of the 
slave, and they exerted a powerful influence in con- 
verting the host of the northern people into oppo- 
nents of human slavery. Like Garrison, Phillips 
believed that a dissolution of the Union would 
be the most effectual means of gaining freedom for the 
slaves, and what he thought he did not hesitate to 
say. He gave his life and strength to the great work 
he had made his own, and kept at it with the energy 
of a giant until the war came and the cause was won. 

During the war Phillips condemned the administra- 
tion as dilatory in the cause of emancipation, and he 
opposed Lincoln's re-election. After the war was 
closed Garrison wished to disband the American Anti- 
Slavery Society, of which he had been president for 
more than thirty years ; but Phillips would not listen 
to this. It must keep together until the negro was 
given the right of suffrage, he said. He succeeded 
Garrison as its president, and kept this position till 
1870, when, its work fully done, the society disbanded. 

Emancipation of the slave was Phillips's one great 
thought, but it was not his only thought. There was 
scarcely any reform he did not work for. The cause of 



204 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

women's rights enlisted his heartiest sympathy. He 
was an earnest advocate of the rights of the Indians, 
who had been robbed and oppressed. The frequent 
sufferings of the working class stirred his noble soul. 
He became an ardent supporter of temperance, and 
even of State prohibition of strong drink, and was 
nominated for Governor of Massachusetts on the Pro- 
hibition ticket in 1870. He also was strongly enlisted 
in the Greenback movement — the issue of an irredeem- 
able paper money by the Government. 

On all these subjects his voice was heard, and for 
many years he lectured also to admiring audiences 
on topics of history and literature. He could always 
command a large audience, whatever his subject, for 
the fame of the '* Silver-Tongued Orator " was almost 
world-wide. 

A gentleman always, was Wendell Phillips, manly, 
dignified, courteous, winning the respect of all with 
whom he came in contact, while his unyielding devo- 
tion to the cause he had made his own in time elicited 
the admiration even of his opponents. Never had 
there been a sturdier reformer or a nobler character. 
The power of steady, persistent agitation which he 
displayed he acknowledged he had learned from the 
example of Daniel O'Connell. He had learned it well. 

In 1 88 1 Harvard College, which had always held 
aloof from her noble son in consequence of his un- 
stinted denunciation of what he held to be public 
evils, so far relaxed as to invite him to make the 
address on the centennial anniversary of the Phi Beta 
Kappa Society. It was a distinct and valued triumph 
to the veteran agitator. His voice was last heard in 
public on December 28, 1883, and on the 26. of the 
following February he died. 



CHARLES SUMNER, THE CHAMPION 
OF POLITICAL HONOR 

In Boston, on the 6th of January, i8ii, was born 
Charles Sumner, one who in his later years was to 
play a very prominent part in that era of agitation 
when the Union itself was in danger of overthrow. 
As he grew up he began early to show an ambitious 
desire for learning. Alert in mind, studious by nature, 
he wanted to know all there was to know. His father 
was a lawyer, learned in his profession, but with little 
power of making money, and he wished to confine his 
son to practical studies, those that would help him 
to earn a living and do his share towards supporting 
the family. So he was put to study the common school 
branches. 

This did not satisfy little Charles. He had heard 
that an educated man must know Latin and Greek, so, 
saving his pennies, he bought a second-hand Latin 
grammar and a Latin reader. These he studied in 
spare moments when out of school, and his father was 
utterly surprised one day to hear his son quote Latin. 
Finding what the boy was at, he thought it a shame to 
check such an ambition, and he let him enter the Latin 
and Greek classes in the school. When he was eleven 
his father sent him to the Boston Latin School, where 
his quickness and anxiety to learn greatly pleased his 
teachers. As for his schoolmates, while somewhat 
too much of a bookworm for them, he made friends of 
them by his kindly disposition, 

205 



2o6 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

No one could say that young Sumner was the 
brightest boy in the school. He was never a wonder 
in that way. Many of the boys left him behind in the 
classes. But he lived among school-books; he was 
always at them ; he loved reading as much as the other 
boys loved playing, and when it came to general 
knowledge he was ahead of them all. Bright and 
quick and with a good memory, he stored his mind 
with facts. He loved history above all, reading it 
slowly and carefully, with maps spread before him, 
so that he impressed it on his mind in a way that made 
it stay. Many years after, when he was one of the 
leading legislators of the land, the knowledge of his- 
tory gained in these early days was always ready for 
his use. He not only read many books, but he talked 
much with older people, if he found they could tell 
him anything new. Of course a boy like this had not 
much time for the play-field, and the only sport he 
cared for was swimming. 

He remained in the Latin School for five years, 
expecting then to leave it and go to work instead of to 
college. But luckily his father at this time was made a 
county sherifif, in which position he earned more money, 
so at sixteen the studious boy was sent to Harvard 
College. 

Here was the chance he had longed for. He studied 
hard and was a model college boy, except in the field 
of sport, for which he seemed to have no time 
or inclination. Every pleasure he took he tried to 
make in some way profitable. Thus he won high 
rank in his classes, especially in history and the 
languages. As for mathematics, he had no taste nor 
talent for them, so he paid little attention to this 
class of studies. 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 207 

He graduated in 1830, and then entered the Law 
School, where he made the same satisfactory record as 
a student, and also as a refined and courteous class- 
mate. His studies in the law went beyond the de- 
mands of his teachers, and he needed only a little 
practice in a Boston law office to gain admission to 
the bar. He was then twenty-three years of age. 

It cannot be said that Charles Sumner made a good 
lawyer. His tastes did not run that way. He was 
engaged in some important cases, but he was not suc- 
cessful as a legal orator, and did not get a paying prac- 
tice. He liked better to lecture on the law and to write 
for law journals. He edited The American Jurist, 
wrote three volumes of law books, called " Sumner's 
Reports ;" and occasionally lectured to the Harvard 
students in place of the regular professors. 

After three years of this, Mr. Sumner went to 
Europe, where he spent three more years in study. 
Thus he added much to his knowledge, and he also 
became acquainted with many prominent men, about 
whom he had much to say in his letters. These were 
published after his death, and contain many graphic 
sketches and lively anecdotes, showing that he was 
a quick observer. 

But Sumner was never a favorite in society. He 
was greatly esteemed for his learning, sincerity, and 
earnestness, his stainless character and cheerful and 
kindly disposition, but he lacked the elements of wit, 
humor, and playful fancy, and was quite unfitted for 
the social small talk on which the wheels of society 
run. No doubt the Boston circles of that day voted 
him erudite but heavy, courteous but not stimulating. 

The year of 1840 found the roving lawyer back 
again in Boston, where he took up his practice once 



2o8 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

more, though he Uked its drudgery even less than 
before. He was much fonder of discussion and lectur- 
ing, and he became one of the regular teachers in the 
Law School. 

Up to this time Sumner had taken little part in 
politics, but now was a time when it was next to im- 
possible for thoughtful men to keep out of the polit- 
ical field. The slavery agitation was becoming bitter, 
and the country gradually dividing into two hostile 
camps. Boston had for years been the centre of the 
anti-slavery agitation, and Sumner's father had been 
a bold speaker against the slave system at an early 
date. Now the agitation had spread throughout the 
North, and numbers of ardent speakers were keeping 
it alive. It was impossible for a man of active public 
spirit to keep out of the fray, and Sumner threw his 
strength in favor of the cause which his father had 
sustained. 

Up to 1845 the name of Charles Sumner was little 
known beyond the precincts of Boston, and there he 
was simply regarded as a law lecturer of wide infor- 
mation. But on the 4th of July of that year he made 
a public oration on " The True Grandeur of Nations " 
which was intently listened to by a large audience, and 
when published was read far and wide, even attracting 
a great deal of attention in Europe. It was simply an 
ardent denunciation of war, as the deadly foe of true 
greatness in nations, but its able arguments for the 
cause of peace, and its forcible and polished language, 
gave it a compelling power. From that time people 
began to speak of Charles Sumner as one of the 
coming men. 

Sumner had hitherto voted with the Whigs, the 
party of Henry Clay and Webster, but in 1848, when 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 209 

those who opposed the extension of slavery into the 
territories organized the Free-Soil party, he joined 
their ranks. He did not believe, like Wendell Phil- 
lips, that the Constitution supported slavery, but he 
looked upon it as a sectional institution that could be 
dealt with politically and restricted by law until it 
would gradually dwindle and die away. 

The efforts to widen its territory, therefore, called 
him into the political field, and he strongly combated 
them, making speeches against the annexation of 
Texas and on similar subjects. He had now become so 
well know^n as an able public speaker that the Free- 
Soil party made him one of its first candidates for 
Congress. He was easily defeated by his Whig 
opponent, but in 185 1, when Webster left the Senate 
to become Secretary of State, Sumner was elected 
to succeed him in this elevated post of duty, being 
supported by the combined Free-Soil and Democratic 
members of the legislature of Massachusetts. He had 
now found the true field for his energies, and he was 
kept in the Senate during the remainder of his life. 

When he entered the Senate Sumner stood alone in 
his attitude as an uncompromising opponent of 
slavery. The speeches he made, elaborately prepared 
and bristling with facts and arguments, were notable 
for the boldness of their denunciation of the slave 
system, and excited universal attention, winning him 
support and admiration on the one side, and bitter 
hostility on the other. 

During the first year of his term he took his stand 
as a firm opponent of the Fugitive Slave Bill, an 
act which made it lawful for United States officers to 
arrest runaway slaves wherever found in the Northern 
States. The passage of this bill, and the attempts to 
14 



2IO HEROES OF PROGRESS 

enforce it, greatly increased the anti-slavery sentiment 
in the North, and was one of the leading steps towards 
the Civil War. 

But the event that brought Sumner into startling 
prominence and had a far deeper effect upon the North 
than any speech could have had was an act of violence 
which took place in 1856. It was an outcome of the 
Kansas-Nebraska discussion, in which Sumner was 
one of the leading speakers. On the 19th and 20th 
of May, 1856, he made an exhaustive and splendid 
oration in favor of admitting Kansas into the Union, 
and in denunciation of the growing power and arro- 
gance of slavery. It led to what was almost a tragedy. 

The boldness and vigor of Sumner's language ex- 
cited many of the Southern members of Congress to a 
high pitch of rage, and one of the representatives from 
South Carolina, Preston S. Brooks by name, entered 
the Senate chamber after the close of the session of 
May 22, intent on violence. He found Sumner sitting 
alone at his desk, busily engaged. Treacherously 
approaching from behind. Brooks struck him fiercely 
on the head with a heavy cane, the force of the blow 
being such as to knock him over, stunned. The cow- 
ardly assailant continued his attack, striking blow 
after blow, until he was stopped by two men who ran 
in from an ante-room. 

They were barely in time to save the Senator's life, 
for he was so nearly slain that for several days he was 
in imminent peril of death. Even after he began to 
grow better, his injuries were so severe that he was 
obliged to go abroad for treatment, and it was nearly 
four years before he was able to return to his place 
in the Senate. He never fully recovered from the 
effects of the dastardly assault. 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 211 

During these years his vacant chair spoke for him 
more eloquently than any words of his own could have 
done. It was a constant reminder to the advocates of 
freedom of the violence of the animosity with which 
they had to contend. The conduct of South Carolina 
added to this feeling, for, on the resignation of Brooks 
in consequence of the censure of the House, he was 
re-elected and sent back. He died in Washington eight 
months after the date of his assault. 

It was near the close of Buchanan's term that 
Sumner appeared in his old place in the Senate and 
resumed his former position as leader of the anti- 
slavery forces in that body. In June, i860, he made a 
speech on the question of the admission of Kansas, in 
which he spoke wath his old strength against the slave 
customs of the South. It was published under the 
title of *' The Barbarism of Slavery," and had a tell- 
ing effect. 

While not agreeing with Lincoln in his views on 
the slavery question, he was his warm friend and sup- 
ported him firmly in the coming election. Lincoln 
afterwards so frequently took counsel with Sumner, 
and so respected his wisdom and judgment, that he 
was looked upon in the light of a Minister of State 
outside the Cabinet. He was urgent for the emancipa- 
tion of the slaves, and after the war equally urgent in 
seeking to gain for them full civil and political equality 
with the whites. He also secured the organization of 
the Freedmen's Bureau, to look after the needs of the 
hosts of poor and ignorant blacks who had been set 
free by the war. At the same time he was influential 
in having the seceded States readmitted to the Union 
upon fair and just principles. 

During Grant's term as President, he and Sumner 



212 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

more than once came into conflict. When Grant sought 
to make the repubUc of San Domingo a part of the 
United States in 1871 Sumner fought bitterly against it, 
on the ground that the consent of the people of San 
Domingo had not been obtained. He carried the public 
strongly with him in his opposition, and the bill was 
killed. His continued censure on the policy of Grant's 
administration, and the strong feeling that ensued, led 
him in 1872 to oppose Grant's re-election and to sup- 
port Horace Greeley as a candidate. On the other 
hand, Grant removed Motley the historian, Sumner's 
warm friend, from the post of Minister to Great 
Britain, and at last forced Sumner out of the chair- 
manship of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, which 
he had held for years. 

Sumner's breach with the administration did not 
lose him the esteem with which he was very widely 
regarded, and the breach was slowly closing when 
death came to put an end to all animosities. He died 
on the nth of March, 1874, his old hurt in the Senate 
chamber having a share in bringing on the illness that 
carried him off. 

Sumner was a man of great force and strength of 
will. When sure of the justice of his position nothing 
could change him. He was never a party man, but 
from first to last independent in his views. He was 
never the man to submit to any one's dictation, and he 
lacked the powers of persuasion and the dexterity 
in management that raise men to leadership. No 
one dared accuse him of dishonesty or trickery of 
any sort, his nature being too open to admit of mis- 
construction, and Longfellow, his intimate friend, spoke 
of him as the whitest soul he had ever known. 

During his more than twenty years in the Senate 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 213 

his influence over the people of his way of thinking 
was immense. No hope of favor or popularity could 
make him swerve from any course which he deemed 
right, and even if he took the unpopular side of a ques- 
tion, his rectitude and the strength of his arguments 
often brought the people to look upon it with favor. 
No man that ever sat in the Congress of the United 
States left it with a cleaner record for courage, con- 
sistency, and integrity than Charles Sumner. 



HORACE MANN, THE PROMOTER OF 
PUBLIC EDUCATION 

There have been noble men who have aided the 
cause of American progress in many fields, and not the 
least among these are the men who have promoted the 
cause of education. Many such might be named, but 
chief among these stands the noble figure of Horace 
Mann, who in a large measure was the father of the im- 
proved public school system, as it exists to-day. There 
were schools for the everyday people before Horace 
Mann, such as they were, but the education to be had in 
them was of the most meagre sort. A very bright stu- 
dent might make some progress, but those of duller 
minds learned very little. The school books were few 
and were bad at that, while as for the teachers Horace 
Mann says of his own that '' they were very good 
people, but very poor teachers." 

As for Mann himself, who first set public education 
in America upon its feet, he had the greatest difficulty 
in getting any education at all. Born in Franklin, 
Massachusetts, May 4, 1796, he was the son of a poor 
farmer. Poverty surrounded him during childhood and 
boyhood, and his days were taken up with hard work. 
We are told that " it was the misfortune of his family 
that it belonged to the smallest district, had the poorest 
schoolhouse, and employed the cheapest teachers, in a 
town which was itself small and poor." What little 
chance for schooling there was did him no great good, 
for up to the age of fifteen he was only able to attend 
school eight or ten weeks in a year. 

214 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 215 

His health as a boy was injured by hard work. He 
had no time for recreation, and, his father dying when 
he was thirteen, he had to work harder than ever for 
the support of his mother and the family. From child- 
hood he was eager for books, but there were few of 
them to be had. When he was still little he got some 
books by braiding straw, and he managed to read some 
of the books in a very small library in the town of 
Franklin, but as he grew older he had to work such 
long hours that he could find time for study only by 
losing sleep. 

Thus it went with the boy until he was twenty 
years of age, and it looked as if he might have to go 
through life with what little knowledge he could pick 
up by desultory reading. But his desire for learning 
was too great for that, and in 18 16 he succeeded in 
entering Brown University, having learned a little 
about Latin and Greek and some of the principles of 
English and grammar from a wandering schoolmaster. 
Poverty still troubled him, symptoms of consumption 
had developed, he had to cook and support himself 
while at college, his studies were interfered with in 
various ways, but he studied with the energy of des- 
peration, and graduated with high honors in 18 19. 
Choosing the law as a profession, he began its study in 
182 1 and in 1823 was admitted to the Massachusetts bar. 

Thus the poor farmer's son had made his way with 
the greatest difficulty upward through poverty to a 
profession in which ability would bring him support. 
This abilitv he had. He developed a power of strong 
and forcible eloquence, which gave him much influence 
over juries and brought him continued success. But 
there was more than this, his integrity and high-mind- 
edness contributing greatly to his success. When he 



2i6 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

began to practise he firmly resolved never to take the 
unjust side of any cause, and his sincerity and honesty 
of purpose made themselves felt by all before whom 
be pleaded. It is said that of all the contested cases 
in which he took part he won four out of every five. 

An able lawyer, an eloquent orator, a highly re- 
spected citizen, a man of noble character and elevated 
motives, Mr. Mann was soon called upon for public 
duties. He was elected to the legislature of Massa- 
chusetts in 1827, and there soon became noted as an 
ardent advocate of temperance and education. Six 
years later he was elected to the State Senate. Year 
by year his influence grew until he became one of the 
most notable figures in the legislative halls, many of 
the steps of progress made by Massachusetts during 
this time being instigated and carried through by him. 
One of these was the asylum at Worcester for the 
care of the insane poor wholly or partly by the State. 
It was one of the first of the kind in this country, such 
patients formerly being sent to the almshouse. 

His great service, however, was in the cause of 
education, during the eleven years in which he held the 
position of Secretary of the State Board of Education. 
This body was organized in 1837, i^s purpose being to 
revise and reorganize the common school system of the 
State. To this duty Mann gave all his time and ener- 
gies, resigning for it his law practice and his Senator- 
ial duties. He worked at it almost day and night, 
devoting fifteen hours daily to its demands, holding 
teachers' conventions, delivering lectures, and keeping 
up an enormous correspondence. He had the whole 
country, not Massachusetts alone, in his mind. The 
school system sadly needed reform, and Horace Mann 
came as its reformer. He labored diligently to im- 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 217 

prove the schools, wrote abundantly on the subject, 
told how poorly conducted were the educational sys- 
tems of this country, and aroused a new interest in 
education on every side. The school-system needed 
an evangel, and he was the one demanded. By his 
efforts the State gained better schoolhouses, better 
books, and better teachers, and trustees and parents 
were aroused to do more for the cause of education 
than they had ever thought of doing. 

The school laws, under his influence, were revised 
and made better, and the whole system by which 
children were taught was changed. In 1843 he made 
a visit to Europe to inspect the schools there and 
see if they presented any advantages that could be 
adopted at home. In furtherance of his purpose he 
published a periodical. The Common School Journal, 
in which his views on education were set forth, and 
also published a series of ''Annual Reports " of such 
value that they have been called " a classic on the 
subject." His seventh report told of what he saw in 
Europe, and of how superior the schools of Prussia 
were to those of Massachusetts. 

Having completed his work in his native State, and 
given the cause of public education throughout the 
country a boom such as it never had before, Mr. Mann 
gave up his secretaryship in 1848, to enter Congress 
as the successor of John Quincy Adams, who had 
just died. There he took the role which Adams had 
long sustained, that of opposition to the extension 
of slavery. His first speech had to do with the duty 
of Congress to exclude slavery from the Territories. 
In one of his speeches he expressed his opinion in these 
decided and, in a measure, prophetic words : 

" Interference with slavery will excite civil com- 



2i8 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

motion in the South. Still, it is best to interfere. 
Now is the time to see if the Union is a rope of 
sand or a band of steel. Dark clouds overhang the 
future; and that is not all, they are full of lightning. 
I really think if we insist on passing the Wilmot 
Proviso [a measure to limit the extension of slavery] 
that the South would rebel. But I would pass it, 
rebellion or not. I consider no evil so great as 
that of the extension of slavery." 

Mr. Mann did not forget his favorite subject while 
in Congress. He tried to induce the Government to 
establish a Bureau of Education in Washington. It 
was years later before this was done. In 1853, after 
he had served two terms in the House, a double honor 
was offered him: he was nominated for Governor 
of Massachusetts, and was also asked to become the 
first president of Antioch College, at Yellow Springs, 
Ohio. He failed to be elected Governor, and accepted 
the college presidency. It was in the line of his life- 
work, and he threw himself into its duties with all 
his old ardor. The school was a new one, intended 
for the combined education of men and women — a 
novel conception at that time. It was in need of a 
hard-working president, careful management, and 
good support, and these he brought it. His earnest- 
ness was deep, his work engrossing, and after seven 
years of faithful attention to duty his health com- 
pletely broke down. The college year had not long 
closed after his last term before death came to him, on 
August 2, 1859. Mann's important work in life was 
the great reform in the school system of Massachusetts, 
and the Influence this produced upon the system of pub- 
lic education throughout the country, and he is still 
looked upon as the great school reformer of America. 



LUCRETIA MOTT, THE QUAKERESS 
ADVOCATE OF REFORM 

Of late years hosts of women have come forward 
in favor of reforms of many kinds, but a century ago 
such a thing was almost unthought of in America. 
Women's sphere was held to be the parlor or the 
kitchen, and the pioneers in the struggle for women's 
rights were met with ridicule or with sharp censure. 
It needed great strength of character in those days 
for a woman to come out as a supporter of any cause 
not directly connected with household affairs, and 
it is interesting that one of the first to do so in this 
country was a small, slight, sweet-faced Friend, mild 
and gentle in nature, who seemed unfitted to indulge 
in anything needing courage and energy. 

The woman in question was Lucretia Mott, one of 
the ablest members of the Anti-Slavery Society in Phil- 
adelphia, and among the first in this country to take an 
open stand against the system of slave-holding. 

We are apt to look upon William Lloyd Garrison as 
the pioneer of the active advocates of freedom for the 
slaves, but long before his name had been heard Miss 
Lucretia Coffin, a young lady from New England at a 
Friends' School in New York State, was speaking 
warmly against slavery in her narrow circle of influ- 
ence. Her feeling against the slave system early dis- 
played itself, and so strongly that she felt it her duty 
not to use anything made by slave labor, and while 
still a schoolgirl she did not hesitate to speak her mind 

openly and freely on this tabooed subject. 

219 



220 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

Miss Coffin was born on the island of Nantucket, 
January 3, 1793. When nineteen years of age, after 
some experience as a teacher, she married WilUam 
Mott of New York. Her parents were at that time 
Hving in Philadelphia, and there she and her husband 
went to reside, and there they spent the remainder 
of their lives. This was in 1812, the year the sec- 
ond war with Great Britain began. The horrors of 
this war were a source of deep sorrow to the peace- 
loving mind of the young Quakeress, and probably 
had their share in strengthening her sense of indigna- 
tion against wrong or injustice of any kind. 

Shortly after the war ended, Mrs. Mott began to 
speak in public, her voice being first mildly raised in 
the meeting-house which she and her people attended. 
Among the Friends it was quite common for women 
to speak in meeting, and she soon became one of their 
favorite speakers. Her slender, small figure, her 
delicate and charming face, at once tender and strong ; 
her soft grey eyes, that glowed as if they were black 
when she was much moved ; the sweetness of her 
voice, the convincing earnestness of her manner, all 
tended to give her power over her audiences, while 
her fine powers of intellect and cultivated mind added 
weight and force to all she said. 

Earnestness made her eloquent, her hearers were 
charmed, and her influence became so marked that 
she began to travel around the country, speaking of 
the Quaker meeting-houses, dwelling upon the peace- 
loving principles of the Friends, and pointing out 
the evils of slavery, intemperance, and strife or injust- 
ice in any form. 

A schism took place in the Society of Friends in 
1827, as a result of the preaching of Elias Hicks, a 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 221 

speaker of great power and influence, who advocated 
Unitarian doctrines in the meetings of the society. 
The result was its division into Orthodox and Uni- 
tarian branches, Mr. and Mrs. Mott joining the Hicks- 
ites, as those who accepted the doctrines of EHas 
Hicks were called. Accepting the Unitarian view 
strongly, she felt it her duty to work for it, and dur- 
ing the remainder of her life was one of the ablest 
and most influential speakers of this branch of the 
Society of Friends. 

Soon after this the feeling of opposition to the 
slave system, which she had long taught in the meet- 
ings of her people, began to win public advocates, 
the Garrison campaign was opened, and on every 
side the friends of freedom for the slave were coming 
out openly. New England formed its anti-slavery so- 
ciety, and in 1833 a national society was formed in 
Philadelphia. In organizing this Lucretia Mott took 
one of the most active parts and she became president 
of the Female Anti-Slavery Society, founded the 
same year. It was a work with which she had been 
warmly in sympathy since girlhood, and she entered 
upon the duties involved with the earnestness of 
conviction, working in her quiet and modest but con- 
vincing way. 

Six years later, when a World's Anti-Slavery Con- 
vention was held in London, Mr. and Mrs. Mott were 
among the American delegates, in company with other 
men and women who had made themselves leaders 
in the cause. They went to London full of enthusiasm, 
but on arriving there found themselves in face of 
a deep-seated prejudice which was many centuries old. 

For women to take any part in public affairs, or in 
any way to place themselves on an equal footing with 



"222 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

men in questions of importance, was looked upon as 
out of all sense and reason. It was improper ; women 
should keep within their sphere; they should stay at 
home and make themselves pretty and entertaining; to 
mingle in public matters robbed woman of her sweet- 
est charm — such was the type of the arguments that 
were used, and when these women delegates from 
America came to attend the meetings of the society 
they found the doors shut against them. 

They were indignant at this treatment, and so were 
some of the men who had come out with them. Wil- 
liam Lloyd Garrison was among these, and he was so 
vexed with this example of British conservatism that 
he refused to attend any meetings to which his fair 
friends were not admitted. Thus the convention shut 
out not only the women, but the most famous aboli- 
tionist among the men of the world. Among the 
English women excluded were such well known per- 
sons as Elizabeth Fry, Amelia Opie, and Mary Howitt. 

To soften the indignity of this refusal, a social 
entertainment, called a breakfast, was got up for the 
delegates, and to this the women were invited. The 
company that came to the breakfast was a distin- 
guished one, many of the guests being men of high 
rank and prominence. Among them were a number of 
those who had voted against admitting women to the 
convention, and their surprise was almost consterna- 
tion when a small, sweet-faced, soft-spoken woman 
rose and began to address them with a gentle dignity 
that carried much force with it. It was Mrs. Mott,who 
chose this way of saying what she had proposed to 
say before the convention. 

To many of the Englishmen present this seemed 
unwomanly boldness, but her manner was so soft and 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 223 

sweet, her face and expression so attractive, her words 
so earnest and eloquent, her advocacy of freedom for 
all, black and white alike, so warm and logical, that 
their displeasure soon vanished and they found them- 
selves listening with pleasure and admiration. If 
the vote had been taken after that address there would 
have been little question as to the admission of the 
women delegates, but as it was, Mrs. Mott succeeded 
in expressing her views before the members of the 
society and doing her duty as a member of the con- 
vention to which she had been sent. 

At home, during the long agitation on the subject 
of slavery, Mrs. Mott continued to support the cause 
of human freedom with all her earnest enthusiasm. 
It was a work that exposed its advocates to obloquy 
and even to peril. Those opposed to it were often 
violent. Attacks were made on the abolitionists, their 
meetings were broken up, their members threatened 
and abused, and one of their meeting halls in Phila- 
delphia was set on fire and burned. The fervent 
believers walked in an atmosphere of danger, but 
quiet Mrs. Mott had the courage of her convictions and 
let no fear of violence deter her in her work for the 
enslaved. When brickbats were flying or rioters 
swarming around the hall, she retained her calm de- 
meanor and sought to dispel the apprehensions of 
those present. 

It is said that on one occasion, when a violent mob 
threatened a meeting to which she was going, this 
delicate little lady, with the courage of wisdom, asked 
in her soft voice for the protection of the burly leader 
of the mob. Astonished by the request and disarmed 
by her appeal to his chivalry, the loud-voiced bully took 
her under his care, escorted her to the hall, and saw 



224 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

that she had safe entrance within. The story does 
not say that he was greeted with the cheers of his 
fellows, but no one ventured to interfere with the lady 
under his charge, if any had thoughts of so doing. 

Mrs. Mott did not confine herself to the anti-slavery 
cause. She was as firm an advocate of the right of 
women to be put on an equality with men in the eyes 
of the law, and to have an equal voice with men in 
choosing the representatives of the people. In 1848 
there was held at Genesee Falls, New York, the first 
convention ever called together in which the rights 
of woman to the ballot and the equality with man 
under the law were the subjects discussed. 

The convention and all who took part in it were 
ridiculed from end to end of the country, and almost 
the entire press broke out in a chorus of sharp criti- 
cism and satirical comment on the coming together of 
the strong-minded. Yet all that was said did not 
prevent a body of earnest women, and some men who 
believed in their cause^ from meeting and debating the 
subject. William Mott, who was as earnest for reform 
as his wife, presided, and Mrs. Mott was one of the 
ablest and most earnest of the speakers. Despite the 
roar of laughter and the torrent of ridicule and abuse 
with which the movement was hailed, the little band 
of reformers kept on fighting their battle in their own 
way, growing and spreading, winning tolerance first 
and afterwards slowly gaining the rights for which 
they so earnestly labored. 

Mrs. Mott was long one of the earnest workers in 
this new cause, as also in the temperance crusade and 
the question of women's wages. Her voice was raised 
wherever needed, and she lived to see much of what 
she had worked for achieved. The war came and the 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 225 

slaves were set free. Her work in this field was at an 
end. And the cause of Women's Rights had outlived 
the era of ridicule and won toleration and respect from 
many who had once derided it. The ideas of its 
champions became endorsed by a large body in the 
community, and by the time Mrs. Mott had become an 
old lady she had seen some of them accepted and 
others with fair promise of final success. Her last 
public appearance was at the suffrage convention in 
New York in her eighty-sixth year. 

The noble character and constancy of purpose of 
Lucretia Mott added greatly to the effect of her elo- 
quence and ability. As a speaker, a simple, earnest, 
unaflfected manner and clearness and propriety of ex- 
pression gave force to her words. Her high moral 
qualities, her developed intelligence, the beauty and 
consistency of her character, won her respect and 
admiration even from the opponents of her views. 
And none could say that she kept herself in public to the 
neglect of her home duties, for she was a model house- 
keeper, keeping her home in order and comfort, and 
holding throughout the love and admiration of her 
husband, who was mutually in close sympathy with her 

Mrs. Mott was a guardian angel to the poor of her 
vicinity. She attended them in sickness, sympathized 
with them in their troubles, gave them aid where 
needed, and did it all in a way to v/in their deepest 
gratitude. They lost a good and charitable friend 
when she died, November 11, 1880. 



IS 



ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, THE 
WOMEN'S RIGHTS PIONEER 

The first meeting devoted to the rights of women 
that history records was held in the village of Seneca 
Falls, New York, in 1848, and chief among those to 
whom this meeting was due must be named that ardent 
advocate of the rights of her sex, Elizabeth Cady 
Stanton. This meeting was a notable event in the 
history of one half the human race, the weaker half 
in physical strength. It issued the earliest Declara- 
tion of Independence in the battle for the freedom of 
women. With it began a fight which has never since 
ceased. In this conflict many victories have been won, 
and there can be little doubt that the women reformers 
will win in the end all they have asked for. 

It was not social rights that these women demanded. 
Those they had. Society was their acknowledged field. 
What they asked for were legal and political rights. 
They wished to become the equals of man in all prop- 
erty and personal laws, and they wished to have the 
right to vote, to be made man's equal in choosing those 
who were to govern and make laws for the nation. 
This is what an ardent host of women had been seeking 
for more than half a century and Mrs. Stanton was a 
leader among those who first set the ball rolling. This 
being the case, a sketch of the life of this able woman 
belongs to our work. 

Elizabeth Cady was born at Johnstown, New York, 
November 12, 181 5. Her father, Judge Daniel Cady, 
was a well known and much respected man in that 
226 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 227 

town, long an able lawyer and afterwards a judge in 
Fulton County, in which Johnstown is situated. The 
Httle girl, as she grew up, delighted to be in her father's 
office, to listen to what was said there, and to chatter 
away in her own style when she had a chance. She 
was bright and quick, and would sit silent in her 
corner listening to those who came to see her father on 
business, and taking in with much intelligence what 
they said. When women came in and began to talk 
about how unjust the laws were towards them, the 
little girl listened more eagerly still. If they spoke 
angrily she grew angry for them, and if they com- 
plained sadly her sympathetic soul grew sad also. 

Outside the office she had often been hurt to see 
how much attention was given to boys and how little 
to girls, and to find that girls did not "count for 
much " wdien their brothers were about. All this was 
a source of much mortification to the child, who could 
not see what made a boy better than a girl, and why 
he should have a better education and a superior 
chance in life. She resolved that she would show 
that she was the equal of any boy and had as much 
courage and ability as they had. 

Little Elizabeth had four sisters and one brother, and 
her father seemed to regard the latter more highly than 
all five of his girls. When his son died he could not be 
consoled, though he had all these girls left. " I wish 
you were a boy," he said wdth a sigh to Elizabeth. 
'' Then I will be a boy and will do all my brother did," 
she replied. She looked on courage and learning as the 
points of boyish superiority, and she resolved to show 
she had these by learning to manage a horse and by 
studying Greek. 

Determined that none of the boys should be ahead of 



228 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

her, she studied mathematics, Latin, and Greek, branches 
then usually thought beyond the scope of girls, and 
showed her ability by winning a Greek Testament as a 
prize for scholarship. No doubt her young heart 
swelled with joy at this triumph over the boys of her 
class. She afterwards graduated at the head of her 
class in the academy of Johnstown. 

So far she had kept her word, but here her course 
was stayed. There was not a college in the country 
at that time that would take girl students, and her 
indignation and vexation were great to find that boys 
who had been much below her in the academy could 
go to college, while she, because she happened to be 
a girl, was kept out. 

This seemed to her very unfair. And when she 
remembered what she had heard in her father's office 
about the injustice of the laws towards women she 
grew to feel very bitter about the one-sided way in 
which the world was managed. No doubt she made 
up her mind even in those early days to fight against 
this injustice, for the fight which she afterwards began 
she never gave up while she lived. As for education, 
she managed to get a fair share of it outside of college 
halls, partly in a young lady's seminary, but more by 
a course of home study after her school life was ended. 

She early began to take an interest in the affairs of 
the country, and became very earnest in the cause of 
reform, no matter what its field. In 1839 she married 
Henry B. Stanton, at that time an eloquent and popular 
lecturer on the subject of anti-slavery, one of the re- 
forms of which she had become an earnest advocate. 

Mr. Stanton was sent to London in 1840, as a dele- 
gate to the World's Anti-Slavery Convention, and his 
wife went with him, not as a delegate, but as a com- 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 229 

panion and warm sympathizer. She was not one of 
those women who were excluded from the meetings 
of the convention by the votes of its members, but she 
was in close touch with those who were, and very likely 
her indignation was again aroused by this treatment 
of women as if they were inferior to men. 

One pleasant thing came to Mrs. Stanton through 
this visit to London : she made the acquaintance of the 
sweet and charming Lucretia Mott, this growing into 
an intimate friendship which lasted through Mrs. 
Mott's life. They were doubtless in warm sympathy 
in many of their views, and especially in that to which 
Mrs. Stanton's thoughts were most strongly turned, 
the unjust laws and customs regarding women. 

When she returned to America she had evidently 
made up her mind to devote her life to the cause of 
women, and resist, in all the forms it had taken, the 
ancient and obstinate tyranny against her sex. She 
was by no means alone in this. There were many of 
the same way of thinking. We may name Lucretia 
Mott, Susan B. Anthony, and Lucy Stone as well- 
known examples. But Mrs. Stanton was the most 
active and energetic in the work of calling together 
and organizing the advocates of Women's Rights, and 
it was very largely due to her that in July, 1848, the 
first Women's Rights convention in the world's history 
was called together at Seneca Falls. 

What the members of this convention had in mind 
was to begin a contest to make women the equals of 
men before the law. Mrs. Stanton went farther than 
them all, demanding that they should include the 
suffrage for women among the rights they demanded. 

This radical suggestion met with vigorous opposi- 
tion. At first Mrs. Stanton stood almost alone in it, 



230 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

being supported only by one other delegate, Frederick 
Douglass. Her husband strongly objected to it as 
unwise and injudicious. Lucretia Mott did the same. 
Susan B. Anthony, whose activity in the cause began 
later, at first looked upon the demand for the ballot 
as ridiculous. Mrs Stanton and Douglass, her one sup- 
porter, were in face of a hard fight. 

But she was in dead earnest, and she did what she 
had never done before : she stated her views in public, 
and with a power of oratory she did not know she 
possessed. Douglass, an able and eloquent speaker, 
strongly supported her, and between them they won 
vote after vote, until Mrs. Stanton had carried all her 
resolutions, including that in favor of woman sufifrage. 

The report of what was done in this convention 
excited great attention throughout the country. To 
demand the sufifrage for women ! It was preposterous ! 
Anything so utterly absurd had never been heard of 
before. Such was the tone of most of the papers that 
deigned to consider it seriously, but the bulk of the 
newspapers looked upon it as only a matter for laughter 
and editorial humor. 

This reception had a discouraging effect upon many, 
but not upon Mrs. Stanton. She set to work vigor- 
ously using her new-found powers of oratory and lec- 
uring in all directions. Two years later Susan B. 
Anthony, who had ridiculed the demand for the ballot 
on first hearing of it, changed her views, joined Mrs. 
Stanton as a friend and fellow-worker, and the two 
devoted their lives to the advocacy of the cause. 

In 1866 Mrs. Stanton, then residing in New York 
City, offered herself as a candidate for Congress to the 
8th district voters. Out of 23,000 votes cast she got 
just 24. In 1868 she, with Miss Anthony and others. 



HEROES OF PROGRESS i23i 

started The Revolution, the pioneer Women's Rights 
journal. She was one of its editors for the few years 
before failure met it. It was finally merged in The 
Liberal Christian, a Unitarian paper. She afterwards 
lectured for many years in her chosen field. A ready 
and happy speaker, her labors went far to advance the 
interests of the cause she had at heart. In addition, 
she, with others, compiled a voluminous " History of 
Woman Suffrage " (three volumes of looo pages 
each), made up of documentary evidence and bio- 
graphical sketches. In 1883, being on a visit to 
Europe, she held conferences with John Bright and 
others upon her favorite topic. 

The social and political reforms advocated by Mrs. 
Stanton made remarkable progress during the more 
than fifty years which she devoted to them. The prop- 
erty rights of women have been placed on a level 
with those of men in some States, and have everywhere 
advanced in the direction of equal treatments of the 
sexes. As regards the demand for the ballot, the work 
in which she was the pioneer, its success has been very 
encouraging. To-day women have the full right of 
voting in four of the States, and in many others can 
vote in school-board elections and other local matters. 
And it has spread to other lands, especially to Austra- 
lia, in which women vote on equal terms with men. 

Mrs. Stanton had the unique distinction of being able 
to look back to the day in which she stood alone among 
her sex as an advocate of woman suffrage, her only 
supporter being a man of negro race, Frederick Doug- 
lass, and living to see it adopted in four of the Amer- 
ican States and in island realms afar. She was a 
conqueror in her life's fight when death came to her, 
October 26, 1902. 



SUSAN B. ANTHONY, THE OLD GUARD 
OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE 

The cause of the political rights of women has had 
no more strenuous and unyielding advocate than Susan 
Brownell Anthony, a woman who for more than fifty 
years rarely let a day go by without doing something to 
advance her favorite reforms. Among these woman 
suffrage stood first, but there was no modern move- 
ment for the good of woman or of humanity in general 
to which this veteran agitator did not lend her aid. 
And when Miss Anthony came to the aid of any cause 
it was with heart and soul. 

Born in South Adams, Massachusetts, February 15, 
1820, of Quaker ancestry, Miss Anthony received an 
excellent education from her father, who was a cotton 
manufacturer. She was yet in early childhood when 
her father removed to Washington County, New York, 
where her early studies were in a small school held in 
his house. 

Her education was completed in a Philadelphia 
school, and at the age of seventeen, her father having 
failed in business, she entered upon her life duties as a 
teacher, glad to be able to earn her own living and 
relieve her father. 

There was one thing, however, that the youthful 
teacher protested against from the start : the low wages 
paid, and the discrimination in favor of men. She had 
certainly some reason to complain of under-pay, in 
view of the fact that she received but a dollar and a half 

232 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 233 

per week, in addition to the not very enticing privilege 
of " boarding around." The frequent change of diet 
and domicile arising from this custom of the times 
must have been anything but agreeable to a high 
spirited woman. 

What principally roused Miss Anthony's indignation 
at this time was to see men whom she felt to be much 
inferior to her in education and ability as teachers 
receiving three times her salary. It was this injustice, 
as she deemed it, that led her first to lift her voice in 
public. This was at a meeting of the New York State 
Teachers' Association, where some of the men were 
deploring the fact that their profession was not held to 
be as honorable and influential as those of the lawyer, 
the doctor, and the minister. 

During a pause in the debate Miss Anthony rose and, 
to the horror of many of them, began to speak. In 
those days for a woman to venture to offer her views 
in a meeting of men, or, for that matter, in any meeting, 
was looked upon as an event utterly out of woman's 
sphere. The fair rebel against the conventionalities 
did not sin greatly. Her speech was not a long one, 
but what there was of it was telling and pithy. She 
said: 

" Do you not see that as long as society says that 
a woman has not brains enough to be a lawyer, a 
doctor, or a minister, but has ample brains to be a 
teacher, every man of you who condescends to teach 
school tacitly acknowledges before all Israel and 
the sun that he hasn't any more brains than a 
woman ? " 

With this brief but knotty sentence she sat down, 
leaving it to them to digest. For years afterwards 
she strove in the association to bring women's wages 



234 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

and positions as teachers up to those of men, and she 
succeeded in greatly improving the standing of women 
in this respect. 

Miss Anthonys' career as a teacher continued until 
1852, but several years before it ended she began to 
take an active part in reform movements as a public 
speaker. Her first appearance in public was about 
1846, in the temperance agitation. At that time the 
popular prejudice against women taking part in public 
work was very strong, but Miss Anthony was one of 
those valiant souls that do not hesitate to cross the 
Rubicon of custom and prejudice, and she dared criti- 
cism by a bold ventilation of her views before some 
women's meetings. She was helping to break down the 
wall that stood between woman and the public plat- 
form. 

Two years later, as stated in our sketch of Elizabeth 
Cady Stanton, a Women's Rights convention was held 
at Seneca Falls, New York, where a resolution was 
proposed and carried demanding the right of suffrage 
for women. When word of this action came to Miss 
Anthony's ears she spoke of it as ridiculous. It was a 
new thought, to which she had to become accustomed, 
but two years later we find her in full acceptance of it, 
convinced that only through the use of the ballot could 
woman succeed in gaining an equality in industrial and 
legal conditions with man. 

By this time she was becoming widely known as a 
lecturer on social topics and an organizer of temper- 
ance societies, and in 185 1 she called a State conven- 
tion of women at Albany, to urge upon the public the 
wrongs and to demand the rights of her sex. From 
this time forward she was a friend and co-worker of 
Mrs. Stanton and became regarded as one of the most 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 235 

ardent and able advocates of the various reforms which 
she took in hand. 

There were at that time more insistent questions 
before the pubhc than that of women's rights. First 
among these was that of the freedom of the slave, in 
which she took part with her accustomed ardor and 
blunt plainness of speech. To this she gave much of 
her time after 1856, while not forgetting the other sub- 
jects to which she had devoted herself. One of these 
was to secure for women admission to temperance 
and educational conventions on equal terms with men. 
In this she succeeded. The fence of exclusion was 
slowly giving way before her assaults. 

During the Civil War Miss Anthony was very 
active, lecturing from city to city upon the vital ques- 
tions of the day. She joined others in forming the 
Loyal Women's League, and in association with Mrs. 
Stanton sent petitions through the country to develop a 
public opinion in favor of abolishing slavery as a war 
measure. The duty of decreeing universal emancipa- 
tion was strongly urged by her upon President Lincoln 
and Congress. 

By this time Miss Anthony had gained much facility 
as a public speaker. She never indulged in flowers 
of speech and rarely rose to eloquence, but was fluent 
and earnest, direct and business-like, always talking to 
the point, always sincere, and usually convincing. Her 
energy was untiring, her good humor inexhaustible, 
and she was always quick to see and to seize an 
opportunity. 

The war ended, a promising opening for the women 
suffragists appeared, in the settlement of the many 
problems that arose. Among these was the question 
of negro suffrage. In Kansas in 1867 two amend- 



22,6 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

ments to the State constitution were proposed, one 
giving the right to vote to negroes, the other to women. 
Many RepubHcan leaders favored the former but 
fought shy of the latter. Miss Anthony and other 
orators took an active part in the contest, but when 
it came to a vote of the people both amendments 
were rejected, the negroes getting a larger vote in their 
favor than the women. 

An unfortunate enterprise was undertaken about 
this time, in the publication of The Revolution, a paper 
devoted to the cause of women. Miss Anthony was 
active in founding this, was one of its editors, and 
when it failed after a brief career of two and a half 
years, she was left with a debt of $10,000. This she 
paid, principal and interest, from the proceeds of her 
lectures. 

She continued her work with indefatigable ardor, 
and in the decade from 1870 to 1880 spoke five or 
six times a week, in all the Northern and many of the 
Southern cities, the rights of women being her un- 
ceasing theme. She took advantage of every oppor- 
tunity to deliver impromptu speeches on this subject. 
Thus once, when ice-bound on the Mississippi in a 
steamboat, she broke the monotony by organizing a 
meeting in the cabin and addressing the passengers on 
her favorite topic. Like the woman's cruse of oil, she 
never ran dry on the theme of woman's rights. Mrs. 
Stanton said she never knew her to be taken by surprise 
but on one occasion, when she was asked to speak to 
the inmates of a lunatic asylum. This was too much 
even for the ardor of Susan B. Anthony. 

In 1872, having been registered as a citizen at 
Rochester, N. Y., and wishing to test her right to 
the suffrage, she voted at the national election. For 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 237 

this she was arrested, tried, and fined, the judge 
directing the jury to bring in a verdict of guilty and 
refusing a new trial. Under the advice of her counsel, 
she gave bonds to prevent being imprisoned. This she 
always afterwards regretted, as it prevented her tak- 
ing the case to the United States Supreme Court. Her 
purpose was to test the validity of the Fourteenth 
Amendment to the Constitution. As to the $100 fine, 
it still remains unpaid. 

The unceasing agitation kept up by Miss Anthony 
was not without its effect. Gradually the people of 
the country grew accustomed to the idea of woman 
suffrage, it gained a large support among men, and 
became established, in greater or less measure, in 
many of the States. In 1880 she made a plea before 
the Committee on the Judiciary, of which Senator 
Edmunds has said that her arguments were unanswer- 
able, and were marshalled as skilfully as any lawyer 
could have done. For years she sought to rouse the 
people of this country to demand the adoption of a 
sixteenth amendment to the Constitution, making 
woman suffrage a part of the fundamental law of the 
country. 

Miss Anthony said that her work was like subsoil 
plowing. Through the many reforms brought about 
by her in the condition of women she was simply pre- 
paring the way for a more successful cultivation and a 
more liberal harvest. One of her larger labors was the 
'' History of Woman Suffrage," edited by her in con- 
junction with Mrs. Stanton and Matilda J. Gage, 
which embraces three bulky volumes of 1000 pages 
each. 

Miss Anthony attained her eighty-sixth year of age 
without losing her ardor in the cause. Her life's 



238 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

work had won her a reputation as wide as civilization, 
while the honor in which she was held was indicated 
by the refusal of the Empress of Germany to remain 
seated in her presence when a party of American 
suffragists visited the German court. The empress 
was unwilling to seem to put herself on a higher 
level of rank than this plain American woman, whom 
she regarded as having won a station of honor above 
that of the throne. Miss Anthony died, ripe in years 
and in the world's respect, on the 13th of March, 1906. 



DOROTHEA DIX, THE SAVIOR OF 

THE INSANE 

The treatment of the insane in the past centuries 
was a frightful example of " man's inhumanity to 
man." Their condition was pitiable in the extreme. No 
one had a conception of the proper way of dealing with 
these unfortunates, and they were treated more like 
wild beasts in a menagerie than human beings ; iron 
cages, chains, clubs, and starvation being used as 
methods of restraint, while their medical care was 
crude and barbarous, purging, bleeding, and emetics 
being usually employed. It was ignorance rather than 
malice that led to this merciless treatment. When in 
1792 Pinel in France declared that such methods were 
barbarous and fit only to make bad worse, no one was 
ready to believe him. And when he proved that mercy 
was tenfold better than severity, it came as a new 
revelation. About the same time a similar system 
began to make its way in England. The system of 
restraint by straitjackets, etc., was continued till 
later, and in the United States the old methods held 
their own until well into the ninetenth century. The 
change to a more merciful treatment of these unfor- 
tunates was largely brought about by the efiforts of one 
woman, a philanthropist of the highest type. 

This woman, Dorothea Lynde Dix, was born April 
4, 1802, in Hampden, Maine, the daughter of an 
itinerant physician, who died while she was quite 
young. She had her own way to make, and at fourteen 

239 



240 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

years of age was teaching a child-school. In 182 1 she 
taught an older school, and in 183 1 opened a select 
school for young ladies in Boston. Frail and delicate, 
she broke down completely in 1836. Fortunately, she 
had inherited an estate which made her independent. 
She now went to Europe for her health, spending a 
year or two there. 

During her period of teaching she had given much 
time to the care and instruction of the neglected in- 
mates of the State's prison at Charlestown, and on 
her return from Europe became deeply interested in 
the condition of the paupers, prisoners, and lunatics, 
especially the latter, of Massachusetts. She was not 
alone in this. Others were awakening to the sorry 
condition of these unfortunates, and the benevolent 
Dr. Channing gave her much aid and encouragement 
in the investigation which she undertook. 

Her inquiry into the condition of the insane in the 
State roused at once her pity and indignation ; her 
deepest sympathies were awakened, and she began an 
investigation of the subject which had the merit of 
being thorough and untiring. Practical in character, 
she made a complete study of the question as it existed 
in other lands, and in 1841 began her earnest investiga- 
tion of the methods of dealing with the insane in 
America. What she discovered was heart-breaking 
to one of her sympathetic nature. 

At that time there were very few insane asylums in 
the country. Lunatics were placed with the paupers in 
almshouses and the prisoners in jail, all being herded 
indiscriminately together, and treated with brutal in- 
humanity. Filth prevailed, fires were lacking in bitter 
weather, there was no separation of the Innocent, the 
guilty, and the insane, and fetters were used for the 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 241 

restraint of those who might easily have been managed 
by kindness. 

Miss Dix's investigation led to a memorial to the 
legislature of Massachusetts, in which she vividly 
depicted the state of affairs and earnestly called for 
an amelioration of the horrors she had found. Her 
memorial revealed a shocking condition of things, the 
result of neglect and indifference. The methods of 
mediaeval times had by no means died out even in 
intellectual Massachusetts, ignorance of the true con- 
dition of the almshouses and prisons having much to 
do with it. Miss Dix was determined that the plea 
of ignorance should no longer prevail. Her memorial 
was full of disquieting facts and earnest appeals. We 
can here quote only one of its most startling passages : 
" I proceed, gentlemen, to call your attention to the 
present state of insane persons confined within the 
commonwealth ; in cages, closets, cellars, stalls, pens ; 
chained, naked, beaten with rods, and lashed into 
obedience." 

This general statement was borne out by detailed 
accounts of the horrible things she had seen in many 
instances. As a mild example may be mentioned the 
recital of one almshouse keeper, who said that one of 
his insane inmates had been troublesome and disposed 
to run away, but was now satisfied and docile. His 
docility proved to be due to an iron ring round his 
neck and a chain fastening him to the wall. 

The memorial was a revelation to the legislature. A 
bill for measures of relief was quickly introduced and 
carried by a large majority, and with that memorial 
began the era of wise and merciful treatment of the 
insane In Massachusetts. By two years of hard work 
Miss Dix had set In train a regeneration of the con- 
16 



242 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

dition of paupers and lunatics in that old common- 
wealth. 

Her researches in Massachusetts carried her over the 
borders of other States, in which she found like con- 
ditions prevailing, and her inquiry was gradually 
extended until it covered the whole United States. She 
traversed the entire country east of the Rocky Moun- 
tains, made investigations everywhere, and found the 
same sickening conditions which Massachusetts had 
revealed. At that time very few States had any pub- 
lic asylum for the insane, and an important field of 
her labors was to have these established. Her first 
success in this was in New Jersey, an asylum being 
founded in Trenton in 1845 as a result of her earnest 
representations. This was but the beginning; many 
other States followed, and the herding of the indigent 
and the insane together in almshouses began to be a 
thing of the past. 

Miss Dix spared no efforts in her indefatigable 
labors. She went from legislature to legislature, inter- 
viewing members, pleading, demanding, repeating the 
results of her inquiries, winning votes, everywhere 
commanding respect and attention, everywhere gaining 
favorable legislation. And this was not alone in the 
United States, for more than once she crossed the 
ocean and found conditions still existing in Europe that 
badly needed improvement. In Italy she appealed 
to the Pope in aid of the ill-treated insane. 

The plea of State poverty was one of the difficulties 
she met at home, and this she sought to overcome 
by an appeal to Congress. Large grants of the public 
lands were being made for the endowment of schools, 
and she begged for a similar grant in aid of her life- 
work. Her first application was made in 1848, when 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 243 

she asked for 5,000,000 acres. She later on increased 
this demand to 12,250,000 acres, 10,000,000 being for 
the benefit of the insane and the remainder for the 
deaf and dumb. 

It was a difficult task she had undertaken. Congress 
was then occupied with exciting questions that threat- 
ened to lead to civil war, and it was hard to enlist its 
attention to an act of pure beneficence. Year after 
year Miss Dix kept up the struggle, only to meet 
defeat and disappointment. More than once her bill 
was passed by the Senate but killed in the House. 
Again, the House supported it and the Senate defeated 
it. Not until 1854 did she succeed in getting a favor- 
able vote from both houses. 

It was with the highest gratification that she heard 
of her success, her triumph. The unfortunates for 
whom she had so long worked and pleaded would now 
be amply cared for, and the disgrace on the nation, 
which had so long existed, come to an end. Her heart 
was filled with joy, and congratulations poured in upon 
her. Alas ! the bill had the President still to pass, and 
her heart sank into the depths when President Pierce, 
moved by a spasm of constitutionalism, vetoed the 
bill, on the ground of its being alien to the Constitution. 

Miss Dix was defeated. It was hopeless to seek to 
revive the measure during the years of excitem.ent that 
followed, but she continued her work with success 
among the States until the outbreak of the Civil War 
rendered useless all labors in this direction. 

She now sought Washington and offered her services 
in a new role of benevolence, as a nurse for wounded 
soldiers. In this the zeal and ability in manage- 
ment she displayed were such that on the loth of July, 
1861, Secretary Cameron appointed her Superintendent 



244 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

of Women Nurses. As such she estabHshed excellent 
regulations, which were strictly carried out, but not 
without controversies with others in authority. Miss 
Dix had a somewhat autocratic manner, which was 
likely to cause offence and lead to opposition, but her 
instincts were all for good. She continued her service 
till the end of the war, carefully inspecting the hos- 
pitals, overseeing the work of the nurses, and main- 
taining a high state of discipline among them. For this 
she accepted no salary, and provided amply for the 
health of those working under her. 

The war ended, Miss Dix returned to her labors in 
behalf of the insane and kept them up until advancing 
age reduced her powers. She resided at Trenton, N. J., 
the seat of the first asylum instituted through her 
efforts, and died there July i8, 1887. 



GEORGE PEABODY, THE BANKER 
PHILANTHROPIST 

On more than one occasion men of wealth have come 
to the aid of this country when in need, and won fame 
by their patriotism. We have spoken of two of them, 
Robert Morris, the financier of the Revolution, and 
Stephen Girard, who bought the unmarketable Govern- 
ment securities in the war of 1812, and relieved the 
authorities in a great emergency. There is a third, less 
known, though not less patriotic, to be named — George 
Peabody, who used his wealth to sustain his country 
in the dark days of the panic of 1837. 

Gloomy times were those. A black cloud hung 
over the nation. The business of the country was 
prostrated and the nation itself in disgrace, for it was 
unable to pay its debts. Money was needed for govern- 
ment purposes, but the credit of the United States was 
at a very low ebb. There was no money to be bor- 
rowed at home, and foreign capitalists were not eager 
to loan their funds, except at ruinous rates. 

At that time there was an American merchant, 
George Peabody by name, settled in London, where 
he had done a large business and grown very rich. He 
had begun his business life in Baltimore, and when 
Maryland asked him for help in her low state of fi- 
nances, Mr. Peabody did not hesitate. He showed his 
faith in his country by buying American bonds freely, 
at good prices. It was at a loss he did this, for the 
securities could have been had at lower rates, but Pea- 

245 



246 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

body's example was contagious, the other London 
capitaHsts having faith in his judgment. They began 
to buy bonds, too, and the crisis was passed. When 
the trouble was over, he declined to accept any reward 
for his valuable services. 

This was a case in which IMr. Peabody was in no 
danger of losing his money, but he looked for no profit 
and was ready to face a possible loss. He afterwards 
gave such large sums for useful purposes, and was so 
benevolent, that he is looked upon as one of the noblest 
of philanthropists. It is for this reason that we feel 
called upon to tell the story of his life. 

George Peabody was born at South Danvers (now 
known as Peabody), Massachusetts, February i8, 1795. 
He came from a good New England family, that in- 
cluded patriots and thinkers among its members, but 
not capitalists until he came. His father was poor. 
His education was scanty. He was taken from school 
and put at work in a grocery store at eleven years of 
age. Here he stayed for four years, getting some idea 
of how to do business, and showing some ability in 
that field. After a short experience in another store, 
he left South Danvers to take a place in his uncle's 
establishment at Georgetown, District of Columbia. 

He was there in 1812, when the war with England 
broke out. Early in that war a British fleet came sail- 
ing up the Chesapeake and the Potomac, threatening 
the city of Washington, and the young merchant's 
clerk joined the band that prepared to defend the city. 
But the ships were only making a feint, and soon sailed 
away, and Peabody went back to the store. 

Young as he was, he showed much of the business 
skill which was to make him rich in later days. He 
was shrewd enough to see one thing: the business 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 247 

was conducted in such a way that there was danger of 
his being held responsible for his uncle's debts. In 
fact, it was carried on for a time under his name. This 
induced him to give up his position and look around for 
another place. It soon came. A Mr. Riggs of Balti- 
more, a wealthy merchant, who had seen a good deal 
of young Peabody and knew that he was bright and 
trusty, offered to make him his manager in a dry-goods 
store in Baltimore, he supplying the capital and Pea- 
body handling the business. This was a splendid offer 
for a boy of nineteen, and he lost no time in taking it. 
Mr. Riggs knew what he was about. The boy was 
alert and careful in business, with sound judgment, 
knowing when to make a deal and when to avoid one, 
when to spend and when to save. He had abundance 
of energy, he was industrious, honest, courteous, and 
had no bad habits. He was the man to command suc- 
cess and was soon made a full partner, the firm being 
named Riggs & Peabody. 

The judgment of Mr. Riggs was fully justified. The 
business grew rapidly, branches were established in 
other cities, and before twenty years had elapsed both 
partners were very rich. Mr. Peabody had often 
crossed the ocean to buy goods for the firm, and in 1837 
he decided to settle in London and carry on an English 
branch of the business. A quick interchange of goods 
was established between the two countries, money made 
rapidly at both ends, and large sums began to be left 
by customers in Peabody's hands, to be drawn upon 
when needed. 

In this way he was unintentionally led into the 
banking business, and in 1843 the firm name was 
changed to George Peabody & Co., and banking made 
its principal business, the house dealing very largely 



248 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

in American securities. In this way he became one of 
the richest men of the time, his bank being looked upon 
as one of the strongest in London and immense sums 
of money intrusted to its care. 

As for Mr. Peabody himself, he was a fine-looking 
but plainly-dressed man, generous and open-hearted, 
courteous and obliging. Americans in London always 
found a genial greeting at his ofHce, and it became 
their common resort. He remained unmarried, living 
modestly in his bachelor apartments, but entertaining 
generously at his club. When the Fourth of July came 
around he did not forget that he was an American 
patriot, and for many years gave a grand dinner in 
honor of the day, to which distinguished guests of 
both countries were invited. 

George Peabody was one of those warm-hearted, 
broad-minded souls who feel that riches are a gift from 
heaven to be used for the good of the world ; their mis- 
sion is one of duty to be done, not of hoards to be 
laid away. Giving, in his mind, stood side by side with 
getting; his nature was broadly charitable; he did not 
wait until death to dispose of his great wealth, but 
Vvisely gave it during his life, while he could see that 
it was well administered and that his purposes were 
faithfully carried out. 

He began his career by giving. When a boy, with 
a very small salary, his earnings went to the needs of 
his mother and sisters. He had always a warm heart 
for those at home, and from the time he was twenty- 
four he took all the care of their support upon himself. 
Later, when his wealth began to grow enormous, 
he looked around for other places where he might do 
good. Being a bachelor, he had no family of his own to 
care for, and, with a broad Christian benevolence, he 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 249 

felt like making the world his family and using his 
wealth so that it would do the greatest good. 

Mr. Peabody was wise enough to know that giving 
money for the direct support of the poor is a form of 
charity that may lead to more harm than good. It is 
apt to encourage improvidence, idleness, and a disposi- 
tion to depend upon help rather than work, and the 
effect of caring for the poor in this way is often only 
to increase the number of the poor. He looked around 
to see where he could make his money do help without 
hurt, where it could benefit mankind by improving 
their conditions or, by aiding their education, put them 
in a way to take care of themselves. 

His two greatest gifts were made for this purpose. 
But before stating what they were, there are some 
smaller examples of his public spirit to mention. In 
1 85 1, when the great World's Fair in London was 
being held, our Government had not much money to 
spare, and Congress was not willing to supply any 
funds for the American exhibit. Seeing this, Mr. 
Peabody generously offered to bear all the expense 
and to see that his native country was fitly represented. 
As a result there was a valuable American display, and 
the inventors and producers of the United States went 
home with many prizes and awards of honor. It was 
the first occasion in which the world was made to see 
the great things that America could do, and George 
Peabody gave it the opportunity. 

In 1852 he gave ten thousand dollars to pay the 
expenses of the celebrated expedition of Dr. Kane to 
the Arctic Seas in search of Sir John Franklin, who had 
gone there years before and failed to return. In the 
same year his native town of Danvers celebrated its 
hundredth birthday, and he honored the occasion by 



250 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

sending it twenty thousand dollars for an institute 
and a library. This was only a beginning. He kept 
adding to it until the sum was more than two hundred 
thousand dollars. 

In 1857 Mr. Peabody had been away from the 
United States for twenty years, heaping up wealth 
in his foreign domicile. He thought it time to see 
his home country again, and paid a visit to the United 
States, going to Danvers and Georgetown and Balti- 
more, and recalling his old memories in those places. 
For many years he had been thinking over a plan for 
benefiting Baltimore by a great educational institu- 
tion, and had carefully laid out plans for it. He 
wanted it to be one that would grow and keep up 
with all demands upon it. 

This splendid institution he saw well under way 
before he left America. It is called the Peabody 
Institute, and includes a large free library, an acad- 
emy of music, an art gallery, and rooms for the Mary- 
land Historical Society, which he helped also with 
money. To this institution he gave over a million 
dollars, supplying the money from time to time as 
his plans unfolded and the institute developed. 

A greater gift was that which he made soon after 
to the city of London, for it was one which reached 
down to the needs of the suffering poor of that mighty 
city. Mr. Peabody had long seen in what miserable 
homes they lived and the dirt and degradation which 
surrounded them. To provide these hard-working 
and poorly paid people with comfortable homes and 
healthful surroundings was one of the best ways of 
helping them, and this he was among the first to see. 
The industrial home which he built, and the oppor- 
tunities for education and recreation he provided. 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 251 

cost him in all about two and a half millions of dollars. 
It was a splendid benefaction and was gratefully 
received. Queen Victoria offered to make him a 
baronet, but Mv. Peabody was a true American and 
would accept no title. Then she had her portrait 
painted on ivory and set in jewels, and presented it 
to him as a token of her deep feeling for his charity 
to her people. This was deposited by him in the insti- 
tute at South Danvers. 

His greatest gift was for the education of the poor 
of the South. The Southern Education Fund, as this 
is called, was a gratuity of $3,500,000. It has been 
of immense benefit in the advancement of education 
in that section of our country, in which education was 
then greatly neglected, and it is of as much service 
to-day as when it was given. 

These are not all of Mr. Peabody's gifts. There 
were many smaller ones. Harvard and Yale Colleges 
each received $150,000, and smaller sums, for churches, 
institutes, libraries, and colleges, were given to a 
number of American towns. His total gifts amounted 
to about eight and a-half million dollars, and when 
he died he left five millions to be divided among his 
relatives and friends. 

He did not wait till death to dispose of his money ; 
he gave it during his life, and was careful to see 
that his instructions were carried out. As a con- 
sequence, his gifts have not gone astray in their 
objects, but are still doing good. When he died, on 
the 4th of November, 1869, his body was laid in state 
in Westminster Abbey, and was then brought to 
this country in a royal man-of-war. Here it was 
received with the highest respect and buried with 
national honors. 



252 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

While so generous to the pubHc, Mr. Peabody was 
abstemious in his personal habits. He had to live 
with close economy in his youth, and he never changed 
from this. His habits were very simple, and he might 
often be seen making his dinner on a mutton chop at a 
table laden with viands, at his cost, for his friends. 
He dressed neatly but plainly, did not indulge in 
jewelry, and disliked display of any kind. In business 
methods he was very exact, and while giving away 
millions, would demand the last penny in the fulfilling 
of a contract. When the conductor of an English 
railway train charged him a shilling too much for his 
fare, he complained and had the man discharged. 
'' It was not that I could not afford to pay the shilling," 
he explained, " but the man was cheating many trav- 
elers to whom the swindle would be oppressive." 



PETER COOPER, THE BENEFACTOR 
OF THE UNEDUCATED 

The city of New York owes a deep debt of gratitude 
to Peter Cooper, one of its most generous and far- 
seeing philanthropists, who gave thirty years of his 
Hfe to planning and developing the Cooper Institute, 
his noble educational gift to the metropolitan city. His 
father had named him, not after some insignificant 
Peter in the family, but after the Apostle Peter, and 
trusted that this boy would prove worthy of his god- 
father. He believed devotedly that his son would 
" come to something," and his faith was not misap- 
plied. 

Peter Cooper was born in New York, February 12, 
1 79 1. His father was a poor hatter, and the boy had 
to begin helping him as soon as he was tall enough to 
reach above the table and pull the hair out of rabbit 
skins. He kept at this till he knew all about the mak- 
ing of beaver hats, the common head-gear of that day. 
He badly wanted an education, he was not very old 
when he saw the advantages of learning, but all the 
schooling his father was able or willing to give him 
was half of every day for one year. That was all 
the school education he ever received. 

The boy worked at hat-making till he was seventeen. 
Then his father went out of that business and into the 
brewing of beer, at which his son continued to work. 
Peter did not like this occupation, and as his father 
was willing to have him try something else, he became 
an apprentice to a coach-builder. He kept at this till 

253 



254 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

he was of age, learned the business thoroughly, and 
proved himself so diligent and efficient that his late 
master offered to build him a shop and set him up in 
business. This was an excellent offer, but the young 
man would not accept it. It would leave him with 
a debt to pay, and of debt he had already a horror, 
perhaps from his father's experience, so he declined the 
kind offer. 

The young coach-builder had three trades at his 
fingers' ends, but he had only a smattering of book- 
learning, and his loss in this respect he felt sorely. 
While he was an apprentice he bought some books 
and tried to teach himself. But good school books 
were not then very plentiful, and those he bought were 
so learned that he could not half understand them. 
There were no evening schools to help him, but after 
a time he found a teacher who was willing to give him 
lessons in the evening for small pay. His difficulty 
led the boy to a resolution that had match to do with 
shaping his future life. He said to himself: 

" If ever I prosper in business so as to acquire more 
property than I need, I will try to found an institution 
in New York wherein apprentice-boys and young 
mechanics shall have a chance to get knowledge in the 
evening." This was a noble purpose, that stayed by 
him until it was realized. 

Young Cooper was not long idle. He got a job that 
fitted in with none of his three trades. This was in a 
shop where machines were made for shearing cloth. 
He got good wages at this and saved all he could, and 
when a chance opened to buy cheaply the rights to 
make the shearing-machines in New York he had cash 
enough for the purchase. This was about the time of 
the second war with Great Britain, and when the young 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 255 

man was not much over twenty-one years old. He 
had done very well for a beginner, and he did very 
well in his new enterprise. Always careful, energetic, 
and enterprising, and with native business tact, he 
made money from the start, and on one large trans- 
action cleared five hundred dollars in profits. 

This seemed like a good lift for the young manu- 
facturer, but he did not look upon it in that way. 
While he was going ahead his father had been going 
behind and getting deeper into debt, and the afifection- 
ate son used the five hundred dollars to pay his father's 
debts. This some might consider not business-like. 
But it was laudable ; it showed a strong moral fibre in 
the young man ; it was something that stood higher 
than business success. 

Peter Cooper was a good deal of an inventor, and 
made an improvement in the machines that helped their 
sale, so that he built up quite a large and prosperous 
business. But after the war ended the demand for 
shearing machines fell off, and he looked around for 
something that would pay better. There happened to 
be a little grocery store for sale at some distance above 
the town of that day. Fields and vacant lots sur- 
rounded it. As he wanted to change his business, he 
bought this place and moved his home to the store — 
for he was married by this time. He was now twenty- 
three years of age. 

It is an interesting fact that the little store stood 
just where the great Cooper Institute now stands. The 
young merchant was looking far forward. The city 
was fast growing, and would in time grow round this 
spot, so that the land which he bought at a cheap price 
would become very valuable. But he had his future 
evening school already in his mind, and fancied that 



256 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

some day the plot of ground would become a good 
central spot for the building he proposed to erect. 

There was one thing that must be said for Peter 
Cooper ; he was a born man of business. Everything 
he touched paid. He knew nothing about the grocery 
trade, but he soon had his store on a paying basis. 
And the money he made in this, and that he had made 
in the machine shop, enabled him after some years to 
buy out a glue factory and to pay down in cash every 
penny of the price. At the same time he was support- 
ing his father and his two sisters and paying his 
brother's way in a medical school. He had made him- 
self the good angel of the family. 

The glue factory, like everything he handled, proved 
profitable, and grew to be one of the most important 
in the country. He made isinglass as well as glue, and 
went into other lines of business, and bought all the 
pieces of land he could find for sale around his grocery 
store plot, until in time he owned the whole block on 
Astor Place, where Third and Fourth Avenues now 
meet. It was thus he got together the ground on 
which his evening school for boys was to be built. 

In 1828 there was much land speculation in Balti- 
more. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the first 
important one in the country, was then being built, 
and many thought it would bring business prosperity 
to that city. Peter Cooper evidently thought so. He 
was now getting to be quite a capitalist, and concluded 
that Baltimore property would be a good investment, 
so he bought three thousand acres of land within the 
city limits, paying for it one hundred and fifty thousand 
dollars. This was only thirty-five dollars an acre, 
seemingly a very small price for city territory, but it 
soon began to seem as if he had paid too much, for the 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 257 

building of the road came to an end. All the money 
invested had been used, and the stockholders would not 
put in any more. They were afraid of losing what they 
had already paid in. 

This was not to Peter Cooper's liking. He was now 
a large holder of Baltimore property, and wanted to 
make it profitable. So he asked the stockholders to 
wait a while and he would see if he could do something 
to help their road. He would build them a steam- 
engine suited to run upon it. 

At that time there was not a locomotive in this 
country except one or two that had been imported from 
England. And there were not many in that country, 
for the locomotive was a new thing even there. George 
Stephenson had only lately invented his improved 
engine. But Cooper, as we have said, had the invent- 
ive faculty, and he set himself to building a steam 
engine adapted to the new railroad. He succeeded in 
this. His locomotive was the first ever built in this 
country, but it was a good one. It was in some ways 
better than those that had been built in England. 

He said about it : " This locomotive was built to 
show that cars could be drawn around short curves, 
beyond anything believed possible. Its success proved 
that railroads could be built in a country scarce of 
capital and with immense stretches of very rough 
country to pass, in order to connect commerce centres, 
without the deep cuts, the tunneling and leveling, 
which short curves might avoid." 

A queer little concern it was, this first American 
engine. To-day it would look like a toy, but in those 
days it seemed a wonder. It did what its builder 
said it would do, and saved the railroad company 
from failure. But it did not add any new value to 
17 



258 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

Cooper's Baltimore land. To make this pay some- 
thing else was needed, and he decided to build a 
rolling-mill upon it. Nothing lay idle very long in 
his hands. He built his mill. The establishment was 
called the Canton Iron Works, and soon became pros- 
perous. Great improvements were made in the blast 
furnace, and the mill and the land both brought him in 
money. The works were afterwards removed to Tren- 
ton, N. J., and for many years were a source of great 
profit to Mr. Cooper. And in New York he was mak- 
ing not only isinglass and glue, but also oil, prepared 
chalk, and Paris white ; was grinding white lead, and 
preparing skins for making buckskin leather. His 
energies reached in many directions, and money was 
flowing faster and faster into his coffers. 

We may be sure that a man as full of public spirit 
as he would not let his spare cash lie idle. He wanted 
to help wherever he could, and was active in nearly 
every work of public benefit going on. He helped 
Governor Clinton in the Erie Canal project, and 
invented an endless chain arrangement for pulling the 
boats along. He aided in the building of telegraph 
lines, and for many years was president of the New 
York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Com- 
pany. He served in public ofiices in New York City, 
and his interest in education was shown in the work 
he did for the improvement of the common schools. 

All these years Mr. Cooper had his cherished project 
in mind, considering its character, developing its pur- 
poses, adding to its site. By 1854 he felt himself ready 
to begin the work which had been his boyhood's 
dream, but which unfolded in his mind much be- 
yond a simple night-school for poor apprentices. To 
know just to what his plans had grown, one must see 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 259 

the Cooper Institute as it stands to-day, on the spot 
where the Httle grocery store of its builder once 
stood. His final purpose, as declared by him, was that 
it should be " forever devoted to the improvement and 
instruction of the inhabitants of the United States in 
practical science and art." 

He gave to it a great deal of money and a great deal 
of thought and work. He haunted the building, 
watching every step of its progress, taking hold him- 
self where needed, altering and adding to it wherever 
he could see a chance of making it better. As it stands 
to-day it is the most complete free school of its kind 
in the country, with every convenience for students 
and everything necessary for them to gain an educa- 
tion in the practical needs of life. Over two thousand 
pupils attend it every year, coming from all parts of 
the United States, and no man ever built himself a 
nobler monument than Peter Cooper. 

For almost thirty years his hale and hearty figure and 
kindly face were to be seen by the students, while his 
interest in their pursuits gave them zest in their work. 
The warm-hearted philanthropist lived to a ripe old 
age, during which his hands never ceased in good 
work. He had passed the great age of ninety-two 
v/hen he died on April 4, 1883. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN, THE EMANCI- 
PATOR OF THE SLAVE 

In a miserable frontier hut, the son of miserably 
poor parents, was born on the I2th of February, 1809, 
a boy who fifty-four years later was to sign the grand 
decree of emancipation that gave liberty to the slaves 
of the United States. An offspring of the wilderness, 
a child of poverty, a boy who had to win his way by 
the sternest labor, to gain an education against the 
severest obstacles, he developed qualities sure to make 
him a great man, — simple-minded honor, noble in- 
stincts, earnest devotion to life's duties, and a practical 
ability and unusual power of expression which enabled 
him to win his way with men. 

The story of this man, Abraham Lincoln, has often 
been told. But he holds a high station in the ranks 
of the heroes of progress, and an outline sketch of 
his life must be given here. In the words of Emerson, 
" He was a man who grew according to his need ; his 
mind mastered the problem of the day, and as the 
problem grew so did his apprehension of it. By his 
courage, his justice, his even temper, his fertile counsel, 
his humanity, he stood a heroic figure in the centre of 
a heroic epoch. He is the true history of the American 
people in his time ; the pulse of twenty million people 
throbbed in his heart, and the thoughts of their mind 
were uttered by his tongue." 

Lincoln was a self-made man in every respect. Born 
at the bottom of the pit of poverty, he climbed his own 
way up. Born on a stony and weedy hillside, at a 
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HEROES OF PROGRESS 261 

place called Nolin's Creek, in Kentucky, in a house 
without windows or floor; taken to as sorry a house 
in Indiana while quite young; doomed to hard labor 
from childhood; he early manifested a desire for 
knowledge that nothing could check and that forced 
its w^ay through all impediments. His scanty school 
education taught him little more than how to read and 
write, and he had to depend upon himself for the rest. 
His stepmother, a good woman, helped him all she 
could and taught him all she was able, and on this 
slender foundation the ambitious student built nobly. 

The frontier settlement he lived in had few books, 
but he borrowed all he could and read them thoroughly. 
He read in the evening by the light of the log fire, 
wrote on a shingle when paper was not to be had, and 
worked out questions in arithmetic on the back of a 
wooden shovel, scraping off the figures when it was 
full and beginning again. The first book he owned, 
a " Life of Washington," he had borrowed from a 
farmer and kept it in a place where it got soaked 
with rain. He took the ruined book to the farmer and 
asked how he should pay for it. The farmer's price 
was " to pull fodder " for the cattle for three days. 
In this way little Abraham earned his book, which he 
dried, pressed out, and valued as a great prize. 

A boy like this cannot be kept in ignorance. "Abe 
Lincoln," as he was called, grew up to be the best 
informed and the strongest young man in the whole 
district. He was tall and sinewy ; not a man in the 
neighborhood could beat him at wood-splitting, at 
wrestling, running, or any athletic sport. In addition 
to this he was kind and helpful, bright and willing, 
good-natured and fun-loving, ready to do anything for 
anybody, and the prime favorite of all the district. As 



262 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

a young man he kept everybody laughing. He had 
a store of amusing stories and was an adept in telHng 
them. He could make a speech also, and his book 
learning grew to be wonderful to the uneducated 
farmers around. He had not read many books, but 
he had read them well. 

Such was Abraham Lincoln as a boy and young man. 
As he grew older he made river trips down the Ohio 
and Mississippi to New Orleans, served as a store 
clerk, and then set up a store of his own in which he 
showed very little business ability, attending to his 
books instead of to his customers. Yet the people 
admired him so that after a time they elected him to 
the legislature. He w^as at that period living in Illinois, 
and in the legislature of this frontier State he served 
four terms, making his mark by the clear good sense 
and breadth of view of the speeches he made, so that 
he came to be considered one of the leading Whigs of 
the State. 

While thus engaged, he became a surveyor, got hold 
of some law books and studied them, was admitted 
to the bar in 1836, and began to practice in 1837, when 
twenty-six years of age. He had traveled up a long 
distance from the poor boy of the log cabin of his child- 
hood. And by this time he had developed some strong 
ideas. During his visit to New Orleans he had seen 
some things that gave him an earnest dislike to slavery, 
and his sentiments on this subject he expressed vigor- 
ously in the legislature in 1837. At that time anti- 
slavery views were very unpopular in any part of the 
United States, and some extreme pro-slavery resolu- 
tions were passed by the Democratic majority in the 
House. Against these he and another member entered 
a protest, saying that " they believed that the institu- 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 263 

tion of slavery was founded in injustice and bad 
policy." 

That was Lincoln's first public statement about 
slavery, of which he was afterwards to become one of 
the greatest opponents. While he was in New Orleans 
on his Mississippi trip he chanced to see an auction 
where negroes were bought and sold. The scene 
stirred his feelings deeply, and on leaving he said in 
stern accents to his companion, " If I ever get a chance 
to hit that institution, Fll hit it hard." He kept his 
word in later days. 

There are many stories showing what a genial, 
kind, helpful man Lincoln was in his early life. All 
round where he lived people grew to depend on him. 
His tenderness of heart was such that he could not 
bear to see even an animal in distress. There is one 
story telling how he waded an icy river to rescue a 
worthless pet dog that had been left behind and 
could not get across. A second story tells of his see- 
ing a pig mired in a ditch. As he was dressed in 
his best, he rode on. But he could not get poor piggy 
out of his mind, and after going a mile or two he 
turned back and pulled the animal out of the ditch 
without regard to his fine clothes. 

Lincoln's law ofiice was opened in Springfield, which 
he had helped to make the capital of the State. His 
knowledge of the law was not great. In studying 
it he had sometimes walked miles to borrow a law 
book, and doubtless lacked many which he should 
have read. But he knew how to talk strongly and 
to the point, which helped him with juries, and he 
had the reputation of not taking any case which he 
did not believe to be just. He was known to refuse 
profitable cases which he thought unjust, even when 



264 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

the law favored them. This integrity helped him, 
and he built up quite a business in the law. 

Regarding young Lincoln's honesty, it may be said 
that when he sold out his store on credit, the man who 
bought it ran away, leaving debts for which he felt 
himself responsible and all of which he paid, though 
it took him many years to do so. His first public posi- 
tion had been as postmaster at New Salem, where 
there was so little business that he fairly kept his 
office in his hat, handing out the letters when he met 
the parties they were addressed to. The office was 
soon discontinued, no settlement being made, so that 
the postmaster owed the government some eighteen 
dollars. Several years passed before this was claimed, 
and in these years Lincoln had often been obliged to 
borrow money to keep things going. But when at 
length a postal agent came for a settlement the honest 
young postmaster brought out an old blue sock from 
which he poured the money in the very coins in which 
it had been received. No needs of his own had been 
met from that sacred store. 

There was nothing going on in which young Abe 
Lincoln did not take a hand. He had been farm-hand, 
wood-chopper, boatman, clerk, storekeeper, postmaster, 
surveyor, lawyer, and legislator. For a time he was 
even a soldier, serving as captain of militia in the 
" Black Hawk War," though he saw no fighting. But 
there was nothing as yet to show that he would ever 
be known beyond his own district or State, though 
he had gained a powerful influence among his neigh- 
bors, was becoming one of the prominent Whigs of 
Illinois, and was several times a candidate for Presi- 
dential elector. The leading politicians of that State 
had a way of dividing the offices among them, and 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 265 

in 1846 it was Lincoln's turn to be sent to Congress. 
He was accordingly elected and served one term. 
While he did not distinguish himself in Washington, 
the party leaders saw that there was some good wood 
in the ungainly Congressman from the frontiers. 

For a number of years after that Lincoln devoted 
himself to the law. The biggest fee he ever got was in 
1853. He defended the Illinois Central Railroad in a 
suit for taxes and won his case, for which he sent in 
a bill for two thousand dollars. This the company 
refused to pay, whereupon Lincoln, on the advice of 
some fellow lawyers, sued for five thousand dollars, 
and the railroad company had to pay him this amount. 

At this time, only seven years before his election to 
the Presidency, few outside his own district looked 
upon Abraham Lincoln as a man of any great merit 
or ability. He was simply a country lawyer and poli- 
tician who had seen some service in legislature and 
Congress, was a ready and telling speaker, but was 
not known outside his State. It was not till the time 
of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, in 1854, 
that his opportunity came. This radical act of the pro- 
slavery party thoroughly awakened him. He had been 
opposed to slavery ever since his visit to New Orleans, 
and now roused himself to " hit it hard." An able and 
popular orator, he took strong ground against the 
extension of the slave system, denounced its acts of 
encroachment bitterly, and became the leader of the 
Whigs in the debate which Senator Douglas, the 
Democratic champion, had started in favor of 
" Squatter Sovereignty," or the right of the people 
of each Territory to decide whether it should be 
admitted as a slave or a free State. 

Douglas was an able and powerful speaker, the 



266 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

" Little Giant " of the Democrats of the West. Many 
thought that Lincoln, whose reputation as yet was 
largely local, would be quite overweighted when pitted 
against this skilled and vigorous debator, who was im- 
mensely popular throughout the State. Their first great 
battle took place in October, 1854, at Springfield, dur- 
ing the State Fair. Douglas spoke first, making one of 
his best speeches to an enthusiastic throng of people. 
His friends thought he had demolished his opponent, 
and were ready to carry him on their shoulders. 

The next day Lincoln took the stand, a tall, awk- 
ward, unprepossessing figure, with plain, homely face. 
Few expected much from him, but he astonished his 
hearers with an extraordinary burst of oratory and 
width of argument. He had never shown himself so 
great and able. The doctrines of Douglas were over- 
thrown by his logical criticisms. As a friendly editor 
said, " The Nebraska bill was shivered, and like a 
tree of the forest was torn and rent asunder by the hot 
bolts of truth. At the conclusion of this speech every 
man and child felt that it was unanswerable." 

It was in 1858 that Lincoln did the work that was 
to make him President. In the four years that had 
elapsed since his first contest with Douglas he had 
grown rapidly in political importance and made him- 
self the unquestioned leader of the Illinois Repub- 
licans — the new party which had succeeded the Whigs. 
It was the time for the election of a United States 
Senator, and Lincoln was the choice of his party as 
opposed to Douglas, who was seeking a re-election. 

The debate that followed was the opening of the 
door for Abraham Lincoln. It spread his reputation 
from Illinois through the whole country. He showed 
himself not alone a skillful orator, but a great political 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 267 

manager, one who was ready to sacrifice the hopes of 
the present for the assurance of the future. He 
pressed Douglas to declare himself upon an important 
point. His friends said that Douglas would answer 
his question in a way to insure his election. Lincoln 
replied : " I am after larger game. If Douglas so 
answers, he can never be President, and the battle 
of i860 is worth a hundred of this." He was right. 
Douglas took a position that lost him his friends in the 
South and robbed him of their support two years later. 

In this debate Lincoln took his stand in a way that 
gave him a continental reputation. He read to his 
friends a part of his speech and they opposed it bitterly, 
declaring that if he said those things it might ruin all 
his political future. Lincoln answered sturdily : " It 
is true, and I will deliver it as written. I would rather 
be defeated with those expressions in my speech held 
up and discussed before the people than be victorious 
without them." 

What he said was this : "A house divided against 
itself cannot stand. I believe this government can- 
not endure permanently half slave and half free. I do 
not expect the Union to be dissolved; I do not expect 
the house to fall ; but I expect it will cease to be 
divided. It will become all one thing or all the other." 

This was a new and startling way of putting it. 
It set the country to thinking and talking, and the 
name of the man who could thus put the whole ques- 
tion in a nutshell became more widely known. Douglas 
defeated him for the Senate, but this he expected and 
did not care for. He had said, '' I am after larger 
game." 

During ten years Lincoln had been making himself 
the leader of his party in Illinois ; now he began to be 



268 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

talked of all over the country. In i860, at the invita- 
tion of Horace Greeley, he made an address at the 
Cooper Institute in New York, before an audience of 
the best citizens of the metropolis. They had heard 
of this eloquent Westerner, and were curious to hear 
him, though many expected only something of the 
nature of a grandiloquent stump speech, fitted for a 
prairie audience. The calm, clear, scholarly, logical 
address they heard surprised and electrified them. 
They had listened to nothing equal to it in force and 
dignity since the days of Webster. All New England 
wanted to hear the prairie orator, and everywhere 
he enlisted the deepest attention and warmest con- 
viction. The character of his oratory was well ex- 
pressed by one hearer, who praised him for " the 
clearness of your statements, the unanswerable style 
of your reasoning, and especially your illustrations, 
which were romance and pathos, fun and logic, all 
welded together." 

In 1856 some of his friends had spoken of Lincoln 
for Vice-President, and even for President; but this 
was mere local admiration. In i860 Seward seemed 
the man of the convention, but Lincoln had won the 
West, and it proved too strong for the East. Lincoln 
was nominated on the third ballot amid a most gen- 
erous burst of enthusiasm. He was the man of the 
West, the rail-splitter of the prairies and forests, and 
a display of some fence rails of his own splitting by his 
friends helped immensely in rousing the excitement 
that carried the convention. 

From this time on the life of Lincoln is the his- 
tory of the Civil War. All readers know of his 
triumphant election, of the secession of the Southern 
States in consequence, of the danger to Lincoln's life 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 269 

in his journey to Washington, and of the need of 
protection during his inauguration, there being men 
in Washington who had sworn he should never take 
his seat. They know also of his wisdom, his judg- 
ment, his shrewdness, and his devotion to the best 
interests of the country. 

He had said in 1858, " This country cannot endure 
permanently half slave and half free. It will become 
all one thing or the other." Three years afterwards 
the war that was to make it " one thing or the other " 
began, and in less than two years more the act to 
make it " one thing " was consummated in Lincoln's 
Proclamation of Emancipation, that set the slave free. 

There was fighting still to be done, much of it, but 
step by step the freedom of the slave came nearer 
and surer, and early in 1865 the war ended in victory 
for the North, and the great work of Lincoln's life 
was achieved. In 1864 he was a second time elected 
President, and on the 4th of March, 1865, in his sec- 
ond inaugural address, spoke those famous words, 
so full of the character of the man : " With malice 
towards none, w^ith charity for all, with firmness in 
the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us 
strive on to finish the work we are in." 

In a little more than a month later the work, so 
far as it was the work of the sword, was finished, 
in the surrender of General Lee at Appomattox ; and 
in less than a week later, on the 15th of April, 1865, 
Lincoln's career ended in the deed of an assassin, who 
was moved by an insane fury which few men in the 
South would have sustained even in that day of heated 
feeling. The time came when the South suffered 
bitterly for this act of horror, which had carried away 
its best friend. 



WILLIAM H. SEWARD, THE WAR-TIME 
SECRETARY OF STATE 

Shall we picture a tragic scene that took place in 
Washington in April, 1865, just after the close of the 
dreadful Civil War? There came then a night of 
horror. An assassin shot down the noble President 
Lincoln as, happy at the end of his great work, he 
sat in quiet enjoyment in his box at the theatre. The 
same dreadful night other assassins entered the house 
of the Secretary of State, forced themselves into the 
room where he lay ill in bed, and attacked him with 
tigerish fury, stabbing him in the face and body. Only 
the courage of the old soldier who served as his nurse 
saved his life, and for days it was doubtful if he would 
recover. 

Fortune alone saved William H. Seward from suf- 
fering the fate of his great chief. He had played as 
active a part in the drama of insurrection and won the 
hatred of the rebellious element as much as Lincoln 
himself. It is our purpose here to give some of the 
incidents in the life of this able and prominent man, 
who so nearly became a victim of the band of assas- 
sins that murdered the President. 

William Henry Seward was at this time well ad- 
vanced in years, having been born in the town of 
Florida, New York, on May 16, 1801, almost at the 
beginning of the century. The boy must have been 
difficult to manage, for he began his career in life 
by running away from college and seeking far-off 
270 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 271 

Georgia, where he undertook to act as principal of 
an academy at a salary of eight hundred dollars a 
year. This was a daring escapade for a boy of seven- 
teen. It was due to a dispute with his father about 
tailor's bills and other such college matters. The young 
rebel, however, surrendered when he heard that his 
mother was in sore distress about his behavior. He 
gave up his position to a friend and went back to his 
studies. 

After graduating at Union College, Seward studied 
law and opened an office in the town of Auburn. This 
town he made his home throughout his later life. It hap- 
pened that here lived a Miss Frances A. Miller, with 
whom the young lawyer had fallen in love, and whom 
he married as soon as he had business enough to 
make the venture and set up a home of his own. 

The young lawyer was not long in practice before 
he became active in politics. He had been brought up 
a Democrat, but he soon joined the Anti-Masons, then 
the Whigs, and in later years came to be a leader of 
the Republicans. In 1830 he became intimate with 
Thurlow Weed, then the most prominent figure in New 
York politics, and the two formed a political partner- 
ship which for many years ruled the politics of the 
State and had much to do with the politics of the 
nation. It was known as the Whig firm of Weed & 
Seward. In later years, when Horace Greeley joined 
in, it became what Greeley called the firm of Seward, 
Weed & Greeley. Seward's name now came first. 

In 1830 Seward was elected to the State Senate by 
the Anti-Masonic party. When the next election for 
Governor came round this party had vanished and 
the Whig party had been formed. It nominated Sew- 
ard for Governor, but he was defeated and went back 



272 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

to his law business. In 1836, however, he was elected 
Governor. This position he held for six years, and 
then retired to private life, declining to run for a 
third term. 

By this time Seward had taken a decided stand on 
the slavery question. He made a visit with his wife to 
the Natural Bridge of Virginia in 1835, ^^^ saw things 
while in that State that made him a foe of the slave- 
holding system. While Governor, he plainly showed 
his enmity to this system. Three black sailors were 
wanted by the Governor of Virginia on the charge of 
having helped a slave to escape, but he refused to 
give them up, saying that what they were charged with 
was not a crime in New York. He also had the law 
repealed by which a slave-holder travelling with his 
slaves could hold them for nine months in the State of 
New York. 

One thing he did is of interest as taking a stand 
against an old but evil New York custom. For many 
years the celebration of New Year's day in New York 
City had been an occasion for social visits at which 
punch and wine were set out for the guests. The 
Governor in 1842 substituted cold water and lemionade 
for these strong drinks. This was not in consequence 
of his own tastes, but he felt that it was his duty to 
throw his influence on the side of the growing tem- 
perance sentiment. 

On returning to the law, Seward soon became very 
successful, and gained a large practice in patent law 
cases, of which he had previously known very little. 
While active in the law, he did not give up his hold on 
politics. He, Weed, and Greeley were the active powers 
in New York politics, the causes they favored were 
the winning ones, the State offices were theirs to 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 273 

dispose of, and they earned for New York the title 
of the " Empire State " by making it the arbiter 
in two Presidential elections. Seward supported 
Henry Clay for President, opposed the annexation of 
Texas, and in 1848 used all his influence in favor of 
the election of President Taylor. Shortly after this 
he was himself elected to the United States Senate and 
took his seat in that great body of legislators. 

He had won a reputation in his own State, and 
soon made himself prominent in the Senate, placing 
himself in the ranks of the most vigorous opponents 
of the system of slavery. Seward was not a specially 
attractive man personally. He is pictured to us as a 
slender, hook-nosed, grey-eyed, homely man, with red 
hair, a harsh and unpleasant voice, and a very awk- 
ward manner. But his speeches were at once graceful 
in delivery and strong in thought, his style clear and 
pure, and when Seward rose to speak the Senators sat 
still to listen. With all his defects of personality, he 
had the power to hold an audience. He was never 
addicted to coarse efforts at satire or buffoonery, but 
he had a keen, dry humor, delightful and telling, which 
still makes his speeches agreeable reading. 

In the Senate he distinguished himself by certain 
striking phrases which took hold of the public fancy 
and became campaign cries in later political contests. 
Thus, in the debate on the admission of California to 
the Union, he said : " The Constitution devotes the 
national domain to the Union, to justice, to defence, 
to welfare, and to liberty. But there is a higher law 
than the Constitution, which regulates our authority 
over the domain, and devotes it to the same noble 
purposes." 

This speech was widelv read and much talked of, 
18 



274 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

and its phrase, " a higher law," took hold strongly 
upon the popular mind. It was everywhere repeated, 
and the doctrine of the " higher law " became one of 
the potent influences of the times. Another phrase 
which struck the public fancy was that of the *' irre- 
pressible conflict," which could end only by making 
the country all free or all slave. He had in some 
degree the gift of prophecy. 

Seward as a Senator made himself one of the great 
forces of the time. He was one of the organizers 
of the Republican party, and a strenuous opponent 
throughout of the spread of slavery into the territories. 
As such he had a marked share in bringing on the 
" irrepressible conflict " which he foresaw, and in i860 
was so plainly the leader of the Republican party 
that he was widely looked upon as the logical can- 
didate for the Presidency. He fully expected it him- 
self, and was bitterly disappointed when the voice of the 
convention was given for Abraham Lincoln. Several 
causes led to this — local prejudice, personal enmity 
to Seward, the question of availability, and, perhaps 
strongest of all, the opposition of his old associate, 
Horace Greeley, who preferred Lincoln, and threw the 
powerful influence of the Tribune in his favor. 

However deeply Seward may have been disap- 
pointed, he did not let it openly appear, but worked 
earnestly for the success of his party, aiding the elec- 
tion of Lincoln by a series of powerful speeches which 
vigorously presented the anti-slavery side of the con- 
test. After Lincoln's election, he did his utmost to 
check treasonable designs in Buchanan's cabinet, and 
made a very able speech against disunion. 

It was the prominence of Seward and his declared 
policy that induced President Lincoln to select him 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 275 

as his Secretary of State, and thus gave him the oppor- 
tunity to make himself famous by his wise and skill- 
ful management of the foreign affairs of the country 
during the trying period of the Civil War. Various 
questions arose that demanded the highest statesman- 
ship in the Secretary, in some of which a man of less 
discretion than Seward might have plunged the coun- 
try into a foreign war. 

It must be said that in all these questions President 
Lincoln had a voice, and often a controlling one. It 
is matter of common opinion that when Seward ac- 
cepted the position of Secretary of State he looked 
upon himself as the virtual master of affairs. He had 
a degree of contempt for the awkward, uncultured, 
inexperienced man who had been put in the Presi- 
dential chair, and expected to pose as the " power be- 
hind the throne," who would be able to manage and 
control the new man from the West, keeping him from 
doing harm. 

He soon found himself mistaken. In his first at- 
tempts to handle Lincoln he found himself " up against 
a stone wall." He was taught that Lincoln had a mind 
and a will of his own, and knew precisely where he 
was and what he was doing. He was willing to take 
advice, but preferred to make his final decisions for 
himself, and Seward soon fell into his true place, that 
of the President's adviser. He had enough to do in 
managing Europe during the Civil War. Urgent and 
perilous question arose, some of them with no pre- 
cedent to aid in their settlement, but Seward rose in the 
level of his duties, and showed himself as great in the 
Cabinet as he had been in the Senate. It has been 
said that during the four years of war " his brain was 
pitted against all Europe and always won." Perhaps 



276 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

this is an exaggerated view, but he certainly showed 
himself a statesman of unusual acuteness and ability. 

The most critical question with which he had to deal 
was that of the seizure by an American war-vessel of 
two Confederate commissioners from the English mail- 
steamer *' Trent," and the bringing them into a North- 
ern port as prisoners of war. The authorities of 
Great Britain were furious and made more than threats 
of war, for they sent troops and war-ships to Canada 
and demanded in harsh terms that the commissioners 
should be given up to them. They were turning the 
tables on us, for in 1812 the United States had de- 
clared war against Great Britain for a similar affront, 
though a far more aggravated one. 

What was Seward to do? The whole North was in 
a flame of patriotism. Everywhere Captain Wilkes 
was praised for seizing the commissioners, and the 
administration was called on to sustain his act. Sew- 
ard had a very awkward affair to handle, but he 
handled it very judiciously. The United States had 
never admitted the right of search of vessels on the 
high seas, and on this basis the administration admitted 
that Captain Wilkes had done wrong, and agreed to 
give up the men. But it took the opportunity to rap 
England shrewdly on the knuckles and remind that 
country that it had done the same thing hundreds of 
times before the War of 1812, and had never acknowl- 
edged that it had no right to do so. 

As for the people of the North, they did not accept 
placidly this settlement of the case. There was a wide 
feeling that Great Britain had taken an unfair advan- 
tage of this country by threatening it when its hands 
were tied by a war at home. The show of unfriend- 
liness was not soon forgotten. It was only one case 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 277 

among many. The result was a bitter feeling against 
the British nation that took years to die away. 

We have already told how, soon after the war ended, 
President Lincoln was murdered and his great Secre- 
tary narrowly escaped death. Seward continued as 
Secretary of State under President Johnson, the re- 
mainder of his career being marked by two important 
events. While Great Britain had taken advantage of 
the trouble in America in one way, France did so in 
another. Napoleon III. taking the opportunity to in- 
vade Mexico and put a monarch of his own choice 
upon the throne. Seward protested against this at the 
time, and as soon as the war was over he plainly 
advised the French emperor to take his troops away 
from Mexico if he did not want them driven out by our 
Civil War veterns. Napoleon III. meekly obeyed 
orders. He saw that he had made a mistake. 

The other event was the purchase of Alaska from 
Russia. By this purchase our country obtained for 
a few millions of dollars a territory which has already 
been worth hundreds of millions of dollars to us. Mr. 
Seward was throughout an earnest, honest, and upright 
man. He was always ready to help the poor or the 
unfortunate, and to do his duty by his clients, and he 
took the side of danger boldly when, in 1846, he 
defended two negro murderers against whom a bitter 
mob spirit had been aroused. He at that time, moved 
by the feeling against him, expressed the hope that 
some one might carve on his tombstone the words, 
'' He was faithful." These are the words to be seen 
on his tomb in Auburn Cemetery, where he was 
interred after his death on the loth of October, 1872. 



JAMES G. BLAINE, THE PLUMED 
KNIGHT OF REPUBLICANISM 

It was a memorable scene that took place in the 
Republican National Convention of 1876, when Robert 
G. Ingersoll, an orator of skill and power, rose to pre- 
sent the name of James G. Blaine as a candidate for the 
Presidency. Referring to Blaine's brilliant attack on 
those who had accused him of wrongdoing, the orator 
said: 

'' Like an armed warrior, like a plumed knight, 
James G. Blaine marched down the halls of the Amer- 
ican Congress and threw his shining lance full and 
fair against the brazen forehead of the defamers of 
his country and the maligners of his honor. For the 
Republican party to desert this gallant leader now is 
as though an army should desert their general upon 
the field of battle." 

From this speech Blaine became known as the 
" Plumed Knight," a title of honor that clung to him 
as long as he lived. At that time he had been in Con- 
gress for thirteen years, having entered it in 1863, 
in the very heat of the Civil War. 

Blaine was a Pennsylvanian by birth, though for 
most of his life he was a citizen of Maine. He was 
long known as the " Man from Maine," as Henry Clay, 
the Virginian, with whom he was often compared, was 
known as the " Man from Kentucky." But Blaine's 
birthplace was in Washington County, Pennsylvania, 
where he was born on January 31, 1830, and lived 
until his days of manhood. 
278 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 279 

When about eleven years of age young Blaine was 
sent to the home of his uncle, Thomas Ewing, then 
Secretary of the Treasury, at Lancaster, Ohio. William 
T. Sherman, the great general of later times, had lived 
with Mr. Ewing a few years before. His house was 
frequented by statesmen and politicians, and during the 
year or two that the boy stayed there the conversation 
he heard must have been excellent early training for 
his future career. He returned home in 1843, and 
entered Washington College, where he made a good 
mark as a scholar, always showing up well in his classes. 

He preferred logic and mathematics, though history 
and literature were favorite studies, and his memory 
was so fine that it is said he could repeat from recollec- 
tion many of the chapters in " Plutarch's Lives." As 
another example of his retentive memory, it is said that 
when anxious to be elected president of the literary 
society of the college, he made himself familiar 
with the whole of " Cushing's Manual " in one even- 
ing, that he might know the rules of order in acting 
as president. He early made himself a leader among 
the college boys, and in debate he stood at their head. 
The great power which he was afterwards to show as 
an orator was thus early displayed. 

Blaine's first position in life was as a teacher in the 
Western Military Institute, at Blue Lick Springs, 
Kentucky. Here he did very well as a young teacher, 
making himself highly popular with the boys, with 
whom he was friendly and confidential from the first. 
He knew the whole of them by name, and knew also 
in what each of them was weak or strong. He is said 
to have been at this time a thin, handsome, earnest 
young man, with the same fascinating manners that 
remained with him throughout his life. 



28o HEROES OF PROGRESS 

At this place Blaine met a young lady from Maine, 
named Harriet Stanwood, whom he soon afterwards 
married. He returned to Pennsylvania in 185 1, when 
twenty-one years of age, and there obtained a position 
as teacher of science and literature in the Institution 
for the Blind at Philadelphia. 

For two years he remained there, engaged in teach- 
ing the blind, and then, at the solicitation of his wife, 
who wished to return to her native State, he left Penn- 
sylvania for Maine. He made Augusta his home, and 
from teaching turned to oratory and editorship, as 
fields better fitted to win him a successful career. He 
became in 1854 part owner of a newspaper, the 
Kennebec Journal, on which he served as editor, writ- 
ing in a trenchant style that soon made itself felt. The 
Journal was one of the organs of the Whig party, and 
already had considerable influence. Its new editor 
speedily added to this, and in a few years became a 
leading spirit in Maine politics. 

When the Whig party went to pieces, Blaine took 
an active part in organizing in Maine the new Repub- 
lican. party. He entered into this with the energy of 
youth and conviction. His life in Kentucky had made 
him an enemy of the slave system, and he engaged 
ardently in the conflict between freedom and slavery, 
which was now growing intense. His clear discussion 
of this vital subject added greatly to the influence of 
his paper and his personal standing in the party. 

He had not yet become widely known as a public 
speaker, but was soon to make his mark. In 1856 the 
new Republican party held its first national conven- 
tion at Philadelphia. Blaine, as one of the party 
leaders in Maine, was sent as a delegate, and on his 
return reported the proceedings of the convention at 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 281 

a public meeting. It was his first appearance before 
a large audience, and he began to speak in a timid and 
hesitating way. But as he warmed up he grew confi- 
dent and broke out into fervid speech, and before he 
ended had proved his native power in oratory and 
won himself a sure place upon the rostrum. 

He began the real work of his life, that in which he 
was to become eminent, in 1858, as a member of the 
legislature of Maine. Here he soon distinguished 
himself as a hard worker and fine speaker, and during 
two of his three years there served as Speaker of the 
House, doing so in an impartial and dignified manner 
that won him great popularity in the State. 

The second national convention of the Republican 
party, that memorable Chicago meeting which nomin- 
ated Abraham Lincoln for the Presidency, was held 
in i860, and as before Mr. Blaine attended it as a 
delegate. On his return he plunged ardently into the 
campaign for Lincoln's election, speaking with such 
warm eloquence that he was called for on all sides. 
*' Send us Blaine !" was the appeal of every committee 
that wanted a speaker. He had changed his place of 
residence to Portland and became editor of the Port- 
land Advertiser. 

Blaine was growing too important to be buried in a 
State legislature, and in 1862 he was elected to Con- 
gress, in which he was to remain during much of his 
later life. A believer in Lincoln, and his earnest sup- 
porter, he became a confidential friend and adviser of 
the great War President, worked vigorously for his 
re-election in 1864, and was a sincere mourner of him 
after his terrible death. 

He continued a member of the House during the 
stormy reconstruction period following the Civil War, 



282 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

and was one of the most prominent among those in 
opposition to President Johnson. An expert in poHt- 
ical matters and management, and a ready and fearless 
debater, he worked his way steadily to positions on 
important committees, and became a prominent factor 
in all the important legislation of the time. Brilliant 
and impulsive, with a wonderful memory of persons, 
facts, and faces, he was rapidly surging to the head, 
and when Thaddeus Stevens died took his place as the 
Republican leader of the House. In 1869, after 
Schuyler Colfax, the Speaker, was made Vice-Presi- 
dent, Blaine was chosen Speaker, and highly distin- 
guished himself in this capacity by his thorough knowl- 
edge of parliamentary rules, his firmness, quickness, 
and impressive manner in the chair. 

He was looked upon as one of the great speakers of 
the House, always courteous and fair and especially 
rapid in the discharge of his duties. It was one of the 
sights of the times for visitors to see the rapidity and 
accuracy with which Speaker Blaine counted a stand- 
ing House for the ayes and noes. He continued in this 
post for three terms, but in 1875 the Democrats gained 
a majority in the House for the first time after i860, 
and his career as Speaker came to an end. 

During the period of his Speakership the long dom- 
inance of the Republican party had brought many men 
of doubtful integrity to the front, and various scandals 
were developed within Grant's second term. This was 
the period of the " Credit Mobilier," the " Whisky 
Ring," and other frauds, and in the investigation that 
followed there was hardly a man in Congress who was 
not accused of being in some way implicated in these 
shady transactions. Blaine was too prominent to 
escape. Several charges were brought against him, 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 283 

the severest being that he had been bribed with a gift 
of Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad bonds. All 
these charges he disproved in an indignant speech on 
the floor of the House, in which he showed that he had 
bought and paid for the bonds and had lost $20,000 
by the transaction. After showing the falsity of the 
charge against him, he exclaimed: 

" Having now noticed the two charges that have 
been so extensively circulated, I shall refrain from call- 
ing the attention of the House to any others that may 
be invented. To quote the language of another, ' I do 
not propose to make my public life a perpetual and 
uncomfortable flea-hunt, in the vain effort to run down 
stories which have no basis in truth, which are usually 
anonymous, and whose total refutation brings no pun- 
ishment to those who have been guilty of originating 
them; " 

This was the speech to which Ingersoll referred 
when he spoke of Blaine as a " plumed knight " in 
the Republican National Convention of 1876. But the 
charges hurt him before the convention, and Hayes was 
nominated by 384 votes, Blaine receiving 351. On 
every ballot but the last he had received the highest 
number of votes, though not a majority of all the can- 
didates. In the same year Blaine was appointed by the 
Governor of Maine to the United States Senate to fill 
a vacancy, and in the subsequent meeting of the legis- 
lature was unanimously elected. While this was a 
great compliment, the Senate was not well suited to 
his energetic and vehement type of oratory, yet he con- 
tinued to debate party questions urgently and to per- 
form diligent committee work. 

When the nominating convention of 1880 came 
round Blaine was again a leading candidate, but General 



284 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

Grant and John Sherman were also strongly sustained, 
and a deadlock ensued which was only broken by the 
selection of a " dark horse " candidate in General Gar- 
field, who was nominated in spite of his earnest pro- 
tests. On taking his seat, the new President at once 
called upon Blaine to fill the chief place in his Cabinet 
as Secretary of State. 

It was a position for which he was well fitted, but the 
assassin's bullet that struck down the President made 
his term in this office very brief. While the lamented 
Garfield lay slowly dying, Blaine performed all the du- 
ties of his office. When the sad drama closed at the 
grave of Garfield in Cleveland, Blaine was much the 
worse for his arduous duties. He remained in the Cab- 
inet long enough to invite all the American republics 
to join in a Peace Congress at Washington, but soon 
after resigned and retired to private life. 

On the 27th of February, 1882, he delivered in the 
hall of the House of Representatives one of the great- 
est orations of his life, his pathetic eulogy of the late 
President, before an audience of the most distinguished 
character. He was listened to with breathless atten- 
tion as he bore touching tribute to the virtues and 
abilities of his dead friend, and ended with a passage 
of sublime beauty which held the audience spellbound 
with approval and admiration. A solemn hush fell 
upon the assembly as these impressive words were 
spoken, and all present felt that they had listened to 
one of the greatest oratorical efforts of history. 

When, in 1884, another national convention was 
held. It was the general feeling that Blaine's nomina- 
tion was a sure conclusion. So it proved ; he was 
triumphantly nominated, and the convention adjourned. 
He had risen from the humble station of an obscure 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 285 

editorship to the choice of one of the great parties of 
the country, the party which had been triumphant in 
every Presidential election since i860. Blaine had 
every reason to look for election. His position was in 
a measure like that of Henry Clay in 1844, but a far 
more virulent personal attack was made upon him than 
any one thought of bringing against Clay. In the end, 
however, a trivial incident led to his defeat. In the last 
week of the campaign he was visited at his hotel in 
New York by a delegation of clergymen, of whom the 
Rev. Dr. Burchard was the spokesman. The latter, 
after some appropriate words, made the glaring mis- 
take of his life, saying : " We are Republicans, and 
don't propose to leave our party and identify ourselves 
with the party whose antecedents have been Rum, 
Romanism, and Rebellion." 

This alliteration of the " three R's " defeated Blaine. 
The Democrats took quick advantage of it, circulating 
widely the scandal that Blaine was a declared enemy of 
the Roman Catholic Church. The effect was fatal. 
Enough votes were lost in New York State to give a 
Democratic majority of about one thousand votes. 
Elsewhere the election was so close as to give New 
York the casting vote, and thus, because an insignifi- 
cant clergyman pleased himself by getting off what he 
thought a telling phrase, Blaine's hopes of the Presi- 
dency went down in defeat. 

During the administration of President Cleveland 
Mr. Blaine remained in private life, part of his time 
being spent in European travel, part in literary work. 
It was during this interval that he wrote his highly 
valuable " Twenty Years in Congress," a work which 
admirably supplements Benton's " Thirty Years' 
View." He made up his mind not to run again for 



286 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

the Presidency, and in 1888 positively declined a nom- 
ination. As a consequence, Benjamin Harrison was 
nominated, and Blaine resumed under him his old office 
of Secretary of State. One of the most important 
things done by him was to bring about that meeting 
of the American republics which he had worked for in 
1 88 1. This conference, called the Pan American, was 
held in 1889, and was an important step in the interest 
of American unity. Illness obliged him to resign 
from the Cabinet in 1892, and he died January 27, 
1893. 

Thus passed away one of America's greatest legis- 
lators. Chauncey M. Depew has said of him : '^ He 
w^ill stand in our history as the ablest parliamentarian 
and most skilful debater of our Congressional history. 
He had an unusual combination of boundless audacity 
with infinite tact. No man during his active career 
disputed with him his hold upon the popular imagi- 
nation and his leadership of his party. He has left 
no successor who possesses, in any degree such as he 
possessed it, the affection and the confidence of his 
followers." 



HORACE GREELEY, THE PREMIER OF 
AMERICAN EDITORS 

The United States has been a nest of able editors, 
who have Hfted the art of the journaHst to so high a 
level that the American newspaper has no equal in the 
world in enterprise and picturesque presentation of 
news. There are many who have helped to make it 
what it is, America's greatest lever of progress. Be- 
ginning with Benjamin Franklin, editors of genius 
have been numerous. Lack of space prevents us from 
mentioning many who became famous in this field, 
and we must confine ourselves to Horace Greeley, the 
ablest and the most widely known of them all. 

No one who saw Horace Greeley as a boy could have 
dreamed that this awkward and backward lad, with his 
tow-colored hair, his shabby and ill-fitting clothes, his 
piping and whining voice, could ever become a man 
of note. But his face bore the marks of intellect, and 
no one could talk with him long without discovering 
that he had an alert and intelligent mind, amply sup- 
plied with facts, for he had read every book upon which 
he could lay his hands and had a memory which 
retained all of value that came into it. He was a 
thinker, too, that was evident ; not alone a man of facts, 
but of original opinions as well. Such was the boy 
who was destined to make himself the most famous 
figure in American journalism. 

Horace Greeley was born at Amherst, New Ham- 
shire, February 3, 181 1. His father was a poor farmer, 
who moved to Vermont in 1821, and in 1830 to a farm 

287 



288 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

of wild, new-cleared land in western Pennsylvania, 
building a log-cabin there, but finding it so hard to 
make a living that Horace felt obliged to set out and 
shift for himself. 

He had learned the art of printing at East Poultney, 
Vermont, and worked there from 1826 to 1830, picking 
up during this time some valuable knowledge of party 
politics. His opportunities for education had been 
poor. Some of the leading men of the town, seeing 
his quickness of mind and thirst for knowledge, 
offered to pay his expenses through college, but his 
parents refused. They either were not willing to 
accept what might look like charity or could not spare 
his help as a bread-winner. But in spite of this the 
boy managed to learn a good deal at home, which he 
added to by such chances as presented themselves in a 
little country printing office. Certainly, while there 
was little in his pocket, when he set out late in 1830 
to seek his fortune in the world, there was much in his 
mind. 

Let us follow the boy in his wanderings. A tall and 
awkward youth, ill fitted with homespun clothes, lack- 
ing attractiveness of appearance and grace of address, 
his chances seemed poor. Luckily for him, one of the 
men on the Erie Gazette had been laid off for some 
reason, and yoimg Greeley found there an opening 
awaiting him. He soon proved that he knew well how 
to set type, and showed excellent qualities of character 
that brought everybody in the office to look on him with 
respect. But in seven months the absent hand came 
back and there was no longer room for his substitute, 
so Greely had to set out on his travels again. 

He had worked hard and lived cheaply, but not for 
his own benefit, for he kept only fifteen dollars of his 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 289 

wages, and sent all that was left — about one hundred 
and twenty dollars — to help his father in his needs. 
From Erie he made his way to New York, several 
hundred miles distant, travelling now on foot and 
now by canal, and spending so little on the way 
that when, one summer day in 183 1, he walked into the 
great city, ten of his fifteen dollars were left. 

He knew nobody in New York, and his shabby, awk- 
ward, and retiring aspect was not calculated to help 
him to a place. Getting a very cheap boarding house, 
he set out to look for work. Nobody would have him. 
All printing offices were full, or doubt was felt of the 
ability of this tow-haired country lad, who knew noth- 
ing of the art of pushing himself. 

A week passed and he began to despair. Then his 
landlord, who liked the youth, spoke to a friend about 
him and of his fruitless search for work. The friend 
replied : " Tell him to try No. 85 Chatham Street ; 
they want printers there." The next morning Horace 
was on hand before the doors were opened, and fell 
into conversation with one of the first men who came. 
This man afterwards said, " I saw that he was an 
honest, good young man, and, being a Vermonter my- 
self, I determined to help him if I could." 

Horace's new acquaintance spoke in his favor to the 
foreman ; the latter looked him over doubtfully, not 
believing that a country-trained typesetter could be 
fit for the difficult work they were engaged on, a poly- 
glot Testament ; finally he agreed to give him a chance. 
The new hand worked steadily all day, and at night 
showed the foreman a printer's proof of his work. It 
proved to be the best day's work — in quantity and cor- 
rectness — done in the office that day, and Horace was 
definitely engaged, 
19 



290 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

He worked for more than a year in this office. The 
wages were not high, and the bulk of it went to his 
father to help him in paying for his farm. But the 
young printer saved a little for himself. He was 
ambitious. He had no idea of keeping at the bottom 
of affairs. Those were the days in which the old style 
of newspaper was passing away and the modern news- 
paper coming into being, and Greeley, feeling that he 
had the ability to edit and conduct a paper, grew 
anxious to branch out into that broad field of 
enterprise. 

He began his editorial career by joining Francis 
Storey in issuing the Morning Post, the first daily 
penny paper ever published. It was very ably handled, 
but the innovation did not take and the paper lived 
only a few weeks. Its ambitious editor saved some 
more money and was soon in the saddle again. The 
next year, 1834, he founded, as head of the firm of 
Greeley & Co., the New Yorker, a weekly literary 
paper, and at that time the best of its kind in the 
country. And Horace Greeley had most to do with 
making it such. 

The next year another of the aspiring New York 
newspaper men, James Gordon Bennett, recognizing 
the ability that lay behind the New Yorker, came to its 
editor and asked him to join in a new enterprise, a 
one-cent paper to be called the Herald. Greeley knew 
Bennett to be a clever and progressive journalist, but 
his experience with the Morning Post had made him 
cautious. " How much money have you ?" he asked. 
" Five hundred dollars," was the answer. '' It isn't 
enough. I won't go in with you, for I don't think you 
can succeed." 

Everybody knows that the Herald did succeed, des- 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 291 

pite the handful of money with which it was started, 
but Greeley did well in keeping out of it, for it is not 
likely that his views and those of Bennett would have 
agreed. He was a man born to be at the head of a great 
journal, not to drive in an ill-matched team. 

Greeley kept on with the New Yorker. It was not 
profitable, but it kept afloat for seven years. During 
one year, 1838-39, he also edited the Jeffersonian, a 
weekly Whig paper, and in 1840 started the Log 
Cabin, a spirited little weekly which supported Harri- 
son for President, was ably handled, and became so 
popular as to gain a circulation of over 80,000. It was 
an ephemeral sheet, issued for the campaign in the 
interest of Thurlow Weed, but it gave Greeley a great 
reputation in all parts of the country as an able writer 
and a zealous politician. 

Politically, Greeley had cast his lot with the Whigs, 
and was a strenuous advocate of their views and those 
of the succeeding Republicans throughout his life. So 
far hi? business ambition had led him into several 
journalistic enterprises which had brought him into 
notice but not made him money. The Herald, which 
he had refused to take part in, was becoming a notable 
success. The Sun was also in the field and making its 
way. Greeley felt that it was time he was launching 
out with the paper he had long held in mind. He had 
married in 1836 a Miss Cheney, of North Carolina. 
Years and family cares were creeping upon him. De- 
lay was dangerous, and in the last number of the Log 
Cabin he announced that a new daily paper, Whig in 
politics, was about to appear. On April 10, 1841, the 
Daily Tribune was launched, as a one-cent newspaper, 
with Horace Greeley as its editor and proprietor, Henry 
J. Raymond, afterwards editor of the New York 



292 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

Times, as its sub-editor. It was fortunate in obtaining 
for business manager Thomas McElrath, an able and 
experienced financier. Greeley himself lacked financial 
judgment, and much of the success of the Tribune 
was due to Mr. McElrath. 

It was Greeley's fixed purpose, while working for the 
success of his party, to make his paper one that should 
be an intellectual and moral aid to its readers. It was 
to sail in a channel of its own on the sea of public 
opinion, with his hand steadily at the helm. The first 
edition of five thousand copies could hardly be given 
away, but there was a new tone in the paper that 
quickly attracted attention, readers came to it rapidly, 
and before two months an edition of eleven thou- 
sand was called for, while its four columns of adver- 
tisements had increased to thirteen. It was a quick and 
big success, and began from the very start that career 
of journalistic good fortune which it has since main- 
tained. 

Its purpose was not like that of the Herald. The 
latter set out to mirror in its columns the world's daily 
events. The Tribune had a different aim. It was to be 
a storehouse of opinions, a moulder of thought, a leader 
of the public mind, and in this field Horace Greeley 
proved himself unsurpassed. His views on political 
subjects came to be looked for and read with avidity, 
and its scope spread out to cover science, literature, 
the drama, and all the fields of thought. Himself 
possessed of excellent literary taste, he drew to the 
Tribune many of the best editors, reporters, and critics 
to be had, and thousands came to look for it daily as 
their exponent of opinion on all subjects of interest. 

Its moral tone was kept as high as its intellectual. 
It warmly supported all projects of reform and philan- 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 293 

thropy. One of its great aims was to promote the good 
and prevent the bad. Every movement designed to 
aid the struggHng poor was earnestly seconded. The 
various " isms " of the day were supported in its 
columns, despite the ridicule which its rivals cast upon 
it. Temperance, women's rights, abolition of capital 
punishment, the uplifting of the poor, were among 
Greeley's " isms," and he supported every movement 
which seemed to him to tend towards right and 
justice. 

But, first and foremost, the Tribune was a political 
paper. While the Whig party lasted it fought its bat- 
tles strongly and shrewdly, Greeley himself claiming to 
be the junior partner of the great Whig firm of poli- 
ticians, " Seward, Weed, and Greeley." The Repub- 
lican party owed its existence largely to the powerful 
influence of the Tribune. It fought slavery with all 
its strength until slavery ended, and from its origin re- 
mained one of the ablest advocates of a protective 
tariff. 

Mr. Greeley was elected to Congress in 1848, and 
during his life filled various political ofiices. But it 
was not in these fields he shone. His best field of effort 
was in the editorial columns of his paper, in which for 
many years he continued to mould and direct the opin- 
ions of his readers. In 1850 he published " Hints to- 
wards Reforms," made up of lectures delivered at 
various times and places, a work which led Parton to 
say: "His subject is ever the same; the object of his 
public life is single. It is the Emancipation of Labor, 
its emancipation from ignorance, vice, servitude, and 
poverty." 

At the end of the Civil War he was in favor of uni- 
versal amnesty and universal suffrage, and in 1867 he 



294 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

offered himself as bail for Jefferson Davis, then in 
prison, an act for which many of his own party severely 
condemned him. But Greeley deprecated revenge on 
the defeated ; he was always governed by his concep- 
tions of right, and never hesitated, for fear of adverse 
criticism, in adopting the course which appealed to him 
as the just one. 

Aside from the immense labors of his editorial pen, 
he was the author of two works, " The American Con- 
flict," a history, from his point of view, of the Civil 
War, and '' Recollections of a Busy Life," a work of 
much biographical interest. 

The Tribune, begun as a small, one-cent sheet, grew 
in size and price as time went on. Important as it 
was, the Weekly Tribune was perhaps still more im- 
portant, from its able summing up of events and its fine 
literary merit. The circulation of these papers was by 
no means local. They made their way into all parts of 
the land, and to-day their great influence persists. 
Though Greeley has gone, his spirit prevails in their 
pages. 

That Greeley was always wise or correct, not even his 
strongest partisan would maintain. No man ever is. 
But he had the courage to sustain any view which he 
thought right, and to support an unpopular cause which 
appealed to him, no matter what his political friends 
might say. No doubt he made many mistakes ; no 
doubt haste or strong feeling often led him astray. But 
he meant right through all ; he was not working from 
the point of view of the ofiice-seekers, but to secure the 
best good of his fellow-men : whether right or wrong, 
he discussed all the questions of the day with a vigor 
and intelligence that made his opinions always of value, 
and the high moral purpose that always moved him 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 295 

won him the respect and esteem of many of his politi- 
cal opponents. 

The close of Greeley's career was a sad one. He, 
the champion of Republicanism, permitted his name to 
be used as the Democratic candidate for President in 
1872, in a hopeless contest against General Grant. 
That he would be defeated was almost a foregone con- 
clusion. But what hurt him more than defeat was the 
accusation, by friends and enemies alike, that he was 
disloyal to his party and unprincipled in his act, and 
that, moved by his ambition to be President, he had 
committed dishonorable offences. To the depression 
caused by this came that due to the severe illness and 
death of his wife. The two combined seem to have 
sapped his vitality, and shortly after the announcement 
of his defeat he died, on November 29, 1872. 

" It was not the Presidential defeat, but the cruel 
impeachment of his integrity by old friends, that 
wounded his spirit past all healing." His death 
changed the current of opinion. Many who had 
blamed him now mourned him, and it became apparent 
how deep a hold he had taken upon the admiration and 
esteem of the American people. He had made a great 
mark as a journalist — few have reached his level in 
this — and he had also made as great a mark as a mor- 
alist. To quote again, he was " one whose name will 
live long after many writers and statesmen of greater 
pretensions are forgotten." 



JOHN ERICSSON, THE INVENTOR OF 
THE "MONITOR" 

Our great men have not all been of American birth. 
Europe has sent us many men who became among the 
best of American citizens and the ablest and most use- 
ful dwellers upon our soil. One of these, a man of high 
distinction in the field of invention, was John Ericsson, 
born in Langbanshyttan, Sweden, July 31, 1803. He 
came to America in 1839, when thirty-six years of 
age, after having spent thirteen years in England,, 
where he built in 1829 a locomotive that ran thirty 
miles an hour, and about 1833 exhibited a caloric 
engine. His most important work there was the appli- 
cation of the screw or propeller to steam navigation, 
an invention which in time fairly drove the paddle- 
wheel from the seas. When he reached the shores of 
America it was as a distinguished inventor. He was 
to spend here fifty years of his life, engaged in similar 
labors of many kinds. 

It was the invention of the propeller, now almost 
universally used on steam vessels, that brought Erics- 
son to America. He offered this to England, but the 
British Admiralty, with the blindness which that body 
has often shown, would have nothing to do with the 
new-fangled notion, and the disgusted Swede crossed 
the ocean in search of a more wide-awake government. 

He found the Americans far more open to new ideas, 

and was quickly set to work in building a warship, the 

steamer " Princeton," called by some one " a gimcrack 

of sundry inventions." It was the first steam vessel 

296 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 297 

that had her engines and boilers entirely below the 
water line, and the first in which the screw-propeller 
took the place of Fulton's paddle-wheels. The 
'' Princeton " had many other new contrivances, con- 
nected with her furnaces, her guns, her smoke-stack, 
etc., and proved a great success in her trial trip. The 
propeller in especial attracted the attention of engin- 
eers, and before many years made a revolution in 
steam-ship building. 

Unfortunately, Ericsson's new ship, despite its good 
beginning, had a sad ending. The first display of its 
powers was hardly over when a terrible accident hap- 
pened to a distinguished party that was visiting it. 
The *' Peacemaker," one of its great guns, burst in 
firing and scattered its iron fragments among the guests. 
Two of the Secretaries of President Tyler's Cabinet, 
a commodore, and several other persons were killed 
by the explosion. 

This accident proved for the time fatal to Ericsson's 
credit with the Government. The gun that burst was 
an experiment in large cannon with which he had 
nothing to do, but it put an end to his government 
work for many years. It was not until the Civil War 
began that his abilities were again called into service. 
The idea of protecting warships with iron bars or 
plates had now been devised, and the South was prompt 
to make use of this idea, raising the sunken " Mer- 
rimac " in Norfolk harbor with the purpose of cover- 
ing it with iron. 

Ericsson, ever fertile in new schemes, devised a 
plan of his own, of a vessel that not only should be 
Iron-clad, but should be sunk so deeply in the water 
as to leave only its gun turrets as a mark for hostile 
shot. The Government badly needed a powerful type 



298 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

of war-vessel, but did not take kindly to Ericsson's 
scheme, and he had great difficulty in obtaining an 
order from the Navy Department. It came at length, 
however, and he began work on his afterward- 
famous " Monitor," the '' cheesebox on a raft " as it 
was derisively termed. 

When he fairly began work on it haste was needed, 
for it was known that the *' Merrimac " was being 
rapidly changed into an iron-clad, and the fear was felt 
that it might do immense damage unless a vessel 
of equal strength was ready to meet it. Not only the 
fleet in Hampton Roads might be destroyed, but the 
Potomac might be entered and Washington bombarded 
by this dreaded monster. As a result, work was 
pressed on the " Monitor," it was begun and finished 
within one hundred days, and it steamed its way down 
to Hampton Roads, reaching there on the night of the 
8th of March, 1862, shortly after the '' Merrimac " had 
appeared and made havoc among the wooden vessels 
of the fleet. 

All readers of American history know what followed, 
of the terrible battle between the iron monsters, and 
of the withdrawal of the " Merrimac," leaving the 
little " Monitor " master of the field. After that Erics- 
son was kept busy building monitors, as all vessels 
of this type have since been called, and the era of the 
iron-clad warship was fairly inaugurated. To him is 
due the credit of building the first successful vessel 
of this kind. 

Ericsson had now reached a high standing as an 
inventor. His propeller and his iron-clad were both 
great conceptions. In addition he spent many years 
upon a caloric engine, in which hot air was to take 
the place of steam. His caloric ship, the " Ericsson," 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 299 

made a successful trip from New York to Washington 
in 1 85 1. It cost him and others large sums of money, 
but it mainly served to prove that hot-air engines of 
large size were much less powerful than those worked 
by steam. Yet the caloric engine is very useful where 
a' small amount of power is needed, and many of them 
are in use at the present day. 

Captain Ericsson gave much of his time in later years 
to inventing torpedoes and other devices for submarine 
warfare. In 1881 the '' Destroyer," a vessel which was 
to fire projectiles containing 300 pounds of gun cotton 
into an enemy's vessel below the armor line, was tried, 
but its success was not sufficient to satisfy the Navy 
Department. In his later years he gave much of his 
time and ingenuity to the building of a solar motor, 
for use on the great sandy plains of rainless regions, 
where the sun gives out vast stores of heat which 
might be made of service to man. He died before he 
had perfected this machine, but since his death solar 
motors of much usefulness have been made. They 
are in use in Southern California and other hot and dry 
regions. 

As may be seen, Captain Ericsson was an inventor 
of great versatility and fine powers. We have spoken 
here only of his most important inventions, but he 
made many others. In the thirteen years he spent 
in England, before coming to the United States, his 
inventions were numerous, most of them having some- 
thing to do with power engines. One of these, which 
was quite a novelty, was the first steam fire-engine 
ever tried. This was used, to the great surprise of the 
Londoners, on a fire at the Argyle Rooms in 1829. 
As was said at the time, it was " the first time that fire 
was ever put out by the mechanical power of fire." 



300 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

The inventions and improvements made by Captain 
Ericsson were far too numerous to be mentioned here. 
His studies and experiments added largely to the 
world's knowledge of the proper use of steam and 
other power agents. The old house on Beech Street, 
New York, where he lived and worked for many 
years, was the home of many inventions and experi- 
ments, to which he gave most of his time every day. 
His work was honored and his fame spread all over 
the world, and many were the learned and honorary 
titles conferred upon him by the governments and the 
scientific bodies of Europe and America. He died in 
New York, March 8, 1889. 



THOMAS A. EDISON, THE WIZARD OF 
INVENTION 

There are men to whom the idea of invention 
comes from seeing some great need. There are others 
with whom the faculty of invention is born, and who 
could scarcely take up a tea-cup without thinking of 
inventing a better handle for it. Such a one was 
the clever and enterprising little lad who, eager ^ to 
experiment in telegraphy, made a line of stove wire, 
with bottles for insulators, wound the wire for his 
electro-magnets with rags, and tried to obtain elec- 
tricity for his current by rubbing the cat's back. The 
effort was a failure but it showed the trend of his 
mind and the ingenuity of his ideas. 

This boy, Thomas Alva Edison, born at Milan, Ohio, 
February ii, 1854, was the son of a poor man, a 
village jack-of -all-trades, who soon afterwards moved 
to Port Huron, Michigan. He could not, or would 
not, give his son any regular schooling, the boy's 
school-life being only two months long. What else he 
learned was given him by his mother at home, or 
gained through his insatiable thirst for knowledge. 
What can we think of a boy who was reading the his- 
tories of Gibbon and Hume at ten years of age, and por- 
ing over books of chemistry before he could pronounce 
the long names he found there? Before he was fifteen 
he had read all the important works in the Detroit 
public library and made a serious attempt to read the 
whole library through. Nothing could keep a boy like 
that from gaining an education. 

301 



302 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

Young Edison had to begin work early. At twelve 
years of age he was a newsboy on the Grand Trunk 
Railway. With some of the money he earned he be- 
gan experimenting with chemistry, setting up a labo- 
ratory in an empty corner of the baggage car. One 
day, in his absence, a bottle of phosphorus which he 
had was upset and broken, setting the car on fire. 
When the baggage-master found out what was the 
trouble he kicked the apparatus out of the car and gave 
the youthful chemist a warm piece of his mind. 

Later on, while he was still railroading, a Chicago 
publisher gave him a lot of worn-out type, and the 
enterprising boy was soon publishing, with several 
assistants, a paper of his own, called The Grand Trunk 
Herald, devoted to railroad items. It was the first of 
its kind ever known. The Civil War was now going 
on, and one day the alert newsboy persuaded a tele- 
graph operator at Chicago to send word of the great 
battle of Shiloh to the principal stations along the 
road. Edison loaded himself up with papers and found 
crowds at every station eager to buy them at a high 
price, netting a splendid profit on his venture. 

This was his first introduction to the advantages of 
telegraphy. He now wanted to know something about 
that, as he did about everything else, and soon got 
his opportunity by saving the child of a telegraph oper- 
ator from being killed by a railroad train. The father, 
grateful to the boy, taught him the art of sending 
messages, and Edison, in his usual fashion of experi- 
menting, soon had wires and batteries rigged up in his 
home at Port Huron and practised until he was quite 
skilful. 

His service as a telegrapher began at Indianapolis, 
when he was eighteen years old. While here he made 



I 




EDISON S MAGNETIC ORE SEPARATOR 
(From original sketch by the inventor) 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 303 

his first invention, this being an automatic register for 
receiving messages and transferring them to another 
wire. In this device lay the germ of the phonograph, 
the triumph of his later life. Constantly practising, 
Edison became very expert and swift as an operator, 
as usual, however, giving all his spare hours to his 
favorite study of chemistry. On one occasion, when 
he was night operator, and had to show that he was 
wide awake by sending the word " six " every half 
hour to the superintendent, he found time to devote 
to his books and experiments by contriving a device 
that sent the signal automatically. Unluckily for him, 
his clever scheme was found out, and he lost his 
situation. 

From Indianapolis he drifted eastward, getting 
positions here and there, and finally reaching Boston, 
then looked upon as one of the most important tele- 
graph centres of the country. He got a position there, 
and, as everywhere else, managed to do some chemical 
experimenting in his off hours. A legend is told of his 
experience in the Boston ofiice which is worth repeat- 
ing, even if its absolute truth cannot be vouched for. 
It is said that the spruce Boston operators were amused 
at the countrified aspect of the young Westerner w^ho 
had been installed at a wire in the office and decided to 
have some fun at the tyro's expense. They therefore 
got a very rapid operator in New York to send a mes- 
sage at lightning speed to the newcomer, thinking to 
set him utterly at sea. To their surprise, Edison took 
the message with ease, and sent back an answer in 
still more rapid style, confusing the New Yorker and 
decidedly getting the laugh on the conspirators. This 
is a good story, whether it is fact or fiction. 

Edison's genius for invention was now turned to- 



304 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

wards telegraphy, and while in Boston he made one of 
the greatest of inventions in that line, that of duplex 
telegraphy — the sending of two messages at once over 
a single wire. On this he spent many hours of his 
spare time, making many failures, and finding success 
very difficult to reach. From this invention he after- 
wards developed that of quadruplex telegraphy, by 
which four messages could be sent at once over the 
same wire, two in each direction, without interference 
with one another. 

It was about 1868 that Edison began to be known as 
an inventor. He had given up his position as an oper- 
ator, and had tried in vain to make his duplex tele- 
graph work between Rochester and Boston. This 
failure was a sore trial to the inventor, who made his 
way in a down-hearted mood to New York, where, after 
trying vainly to interest the telegraph companies in his 
inventions, he established himself as an expert in teleg- 
raphy, ready to do any odd jobs that offered. One 
day the indicator of the Gold and Stock Company 
broke down, and the electricians of the company made 
long and vain efforts to adjust it. Finally Edison, 
hearing of their difficulty, offered his services and his 
offer was accepted as a forlorn hope. He was not long 
in discovering the source of the trouble, and soon had 
the line in working order again. This established his 
reputation as an expert, and business began to come 
to him from all sides. In 1871 he became superin- 
tendent of the company. 

The trouble with the indicator suggested to his mind 
a new device, the printing telegraph for gold and stock 
quotations, and before long he had a shop at work in 
Newark, New Jersey, for the manufacture of his new 
instrument, the " stock ticker," designed for reporting 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 305 

in brokers' offices the prices of stocks on the exchange. 
It has since come everywhere into use. Money now be- 
gan to come in rapidly to the inventor, his shop turning 
out the stock tickers and other devices, for which a 
ready market was found, and telegraph companies em- 
ploying him in researches aimed at further inventions. 
The young experimenter of the Grand Trunk Railway 
train was making his way. 

It was not until 1872 that full success was gained 
with the duplex telegraph. The quadruplex came later, 
also the electric pen. The latter is a hollow needle, 
driven by electricity and working like a sewing machine 
needle, perforating and inking the lines of a message 
on a number of sheets of paper. 

In 1876 Edison made the great venture of his life. 
He proposed thereafter to devote his time solely to the 
work of invention, especially in the line of the electric 
light, and his reputation as an inventor had now be- 
come so great that he had no difficulty in interesting a 
number of wealthy capitalists in the project, they to 
supply the money and he the brains. A shop was 
built and equipped at Menlo Park, New Jersey, and 
there his experiments in this new field of labor began. 
They have since been kept up in this and other direc- 
tions, his inventions being fairly multitudinous in 
number. 

The arc system of electric lighting had some years 
before been invented and was coming into use. It was 
to the incandescent system that Edison applied himself, 
seeking to produce a satisfactory lamp for houses and 
stores. He began by using platinum wires in a glass 
bulb, but soon sought a better and cheaper material. 
Carbon was at length selected as having the highest 
power of resistance to the current. To prevent its 
20 



3o6 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

destruction by oxygen, the bulbs had to be exhausted 
of air as completely as possible. Carbon fibres were 
tried from a great number of materials, carbonized 
bamboo being finally chosen. This gave lamps good 
for at least six hundred hours. 

One great difficulty experienced in the use of the in- 
candescent light was that, when the light was subdivided 
between many burners, the extinction of one light 
affected all the others. Edison finally overcame this 
difficulty, so that any light on his circuit might be 
raised, lowered, or extinguished without affecting the 
others. 

Edison was an indefatigable investigator; when 
actively at work upon an intricate problem he fairly 
forgot the need of eating and sleeping. At one time, 
when his printing telegraph for some reason refused to 
perform, he worked for sixty hours without rest, eating 
nothing but some crackers and cheese as he worked. On 
another occasion all the electric lamps at Menlo Park 
suddenly ceased to bum. The problem annoyed him. 
He worked at it incessantly for five days, taking no 
rest himself and giving his assistants none. At the 
end of that time he had to go to bed, leaving the dif- 
ficulty unsolved. He was worn out with chagrin and 
weariness. For fifteen hours he had worked without 
eating a morsel, and was surprised when it was sug- 
gested to him that food was in order. The trouble, 
in the end, proved to be that the vacuum in the globes 
was not sufficient, and long experiment was needed to 
gain a more complete exhaustion of the air. In this, 
as in almost everything he tried, Edison succeeded. 

Aside from the electric light, the Edison inventions 
have been very numerous. He has taken out some 
500 patents and invented machines of the most extra- 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 307 

ordinary character. He has perhaps a hundred patents 
in connection with telegraphy, including the duplex, 
quadruplex, and sextuplex system. Among the most 
remarkable of his inventions relating to sound are the 
microphone, by which the faintest of sounds can be 
detected; the megaphone, by which ordinary sounds 
can be heard at great distances ; the carbon telephone ; 
and especially the phonograph, one of the most mar- 
vellous of instruments, by which the sounds of the 
human voice can be registered and kept for reproduc- 
tion at a future time. This has been remarkably 
developed since its invention. His kinetoscope is a 
development of the zeotrope, in which a continuous 
picture is produced by a swift succession of instantane- 
ous photographs, taken forty-six or more per second. 
It has also had a splendid development, yielding what is 
known as the living picture. For a time he devoted 
himself to the problem of obtaining the iron from the 
iron-bearing sands of New Jersey by aid of the magnet. 
Large works were built to apply this process, but with- 
out encouraging success in the way of profits. 

As an inventor Edison may truly be named a wizard. 
The world has never known his equal. He has made 
invention a business, and by the aid of a large capital, 
trained assistants, and incessant application, has suc- 
ceeded in adding remarkably to the mechanical devices 
possessed by the world. He is untiring and unconquer- 
able. He never lets go of a possibility of invention 
until he has exhausted it. His workshop is unique. 
He has gathered there everything that can be used in 
his experiments, and all the leading scientific journals 
of the world are indexed ready for instant use. He is 
equipped for any experiment that may suggest itself. 
His mind is never at rest. He says, in relation to his 



3o8 HEROES OF PROGRESS 



contract to manufacture a large number of his 
" stock tickers " at his Newark shop : *' I was a poor 
manufacturer, because I could not let well enough 
alone. My first impulse, upon taking in my hand any 
machine, from an egg-beater to an electric motor, is 
to seek a way of improving it. Therefore, as soon as 
I have finished a machine I am anxious to take it 
apart again in order to make an experiment. That is 
a costly mania for a manufacturer." 

He is one of the busiest men of the world, constantly 
at work, constantly devising. One of his latest produc- 
tions is an improved electric storage cell for auto- 
mobiles. Of his inventions he says : " These are only 
trials, with which we may accomplish still greater 
wonders. The very fact that this century [the nine- 
teenth] has accomplished so much in the way of inven- 
tion makes it more than probable that the next century 
will do far greater things." 

A rather tall, compactly-built man is the famous in- 
ventor, with a somewhat boyish, clean-shaven face, 
to which incessant thought is adding lines of premature 
age. He cares little about dress, and usually manages 
to have hands and clothes stained with oil and chem- 
icals. Somewhat deaf, he watches his visitor's lips 
closely to catch what he is saying. Kind and genial in 
disposition, he is patient in explaining his methods 
and results to inquiring visitors. On the whole, 
Thomas A. Edison is the most marvellous example of 
the American genius for invention. 



FRANCES E. WILLARD, THE WOMEN'S 
TEMPERANCE LEADER 

It was in the year 1873 that the women of America 
first became active in the war against drunkenness, 
which had been going on in this country, in the hands 
of men, for half a century before. A "woman's 
crusade " broke out in Ohio in that year and spread 
Hke a consuming fire through the middle West, ardent 
women advocates of temperance invading the saloons, 
praying and imploring and doing all in their power to 
break up the sale of strong drink and the vile habit of 
intoxication. Their labors led in 1874 to the organiza- 
tion of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, 
which since then has been the strongest force in the 
fight for this great reform. At its head for twenty 
years was the notable figure of the woman with whose 
life history we are now concerned, one of the ablest and 
noblest in the reform movements of the age. 

Frances Elizabeth Willard came from the best New 
England stock, being a descendant in a direct line from 
Major-General Simon Willard, who came from Eng- 
land in 1636, was the founder of Concord, Massachu- 
setts, and took a prominent part in early colonial 
afifairs. Born at Churchville, New York, September 
23, 1839, Miss Willard was taken by her parents to 
Oberlin, Ohio, in the following year, and in 1846 to 
Wisconsin. Here her father became a farmer^and her 
mother was for many years engaged in teaching, and 
here her own education was obtained, it being com- 

309 



3IO HEROES OF PROGRESS 

pleted in the Milwaukee Female College and the 
Northwestern Female College, from the latter of which 
she graduated in 1859. 

As a girl she was full of vitality and energy, pass- 
ing a very active outdoor life with her brother and 
sister, and being fond of riding, fishing, sketching, 
tree-climbing, and other outing occupations. Her 
mother encouraged these health-giving pursuits, by the 
aid of which the young girl laid up a stock of vigor 
which aided in carrying her through the strenuous 
duties of her later years. That she did not neglect 
intellectual pursuits we know from the fact that at 
the age of sixteen she won a prize from the Illinois 
Agricultural Society for an essay on " Country 
Homes," and that in college she was active with 
pen and voice. 

At the time of her graduation Miss Willard was a 
resident of Evanston, Illinois, the chief suburb of Chi- 
cago, which remained her place of residence till her 
death. Her graduation was quickly followed by a 
period of teaching in the Northwestern Female Col- 
lege, where she served as Professor of Natural Science 
from 1861 to 1866, and during part of this time was the 
college dean. She taught also one year in the Genesee 
Wesleyan Seminary, of Lima, New York, and spent the 
years 1868 to 1870 in European travel. Her route 
covered the whole of Europe and parts of Africa and 
Asia, extending from Helsingfors on the north to 
Nubia on the south, and eastward as far as Damascus, 
while much of her time abroad was occupied in the 
study of language and of the history of the fine arts. 
Aside from rest and enjoyment, she gained new In- 
spiration and mental development from the extended 
journey. 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 311 

In 187 1, shortly after her return to America, she 
was made president of the Woman's College of the 
Northwestern University, at Evanston. Her presi- 
dency of this institution is notable for the introduction 
under her auspices of a system of self-government by 
the pupils. This important educational experiment, 
of which she was the originator, proved so successful 
as an aid in discipline, that other colleges soon began to 
take it up, and it is now adopted in many of our institu- 
tions of learning. In addition to her duties as presi- 
dent. Miss Willard was also Professor of Esthetics 
in the college during 1873-74. In the latter year she 
resigned, and shortly afterwards became identified with 
the temperance movement, to which the remainder of 
her life was devoted. She had already engaged to some 
extent in literary work, especially in her " Nineteen 
Beautiful Years," the story of the brief but inspiring 
and noble life of her younger sister. 

Miss Willard's entrance into the field of labor 
which became the unresting occupation of her later life 
was a natural outcome of her sympathy with all move- 
ments of reform. She had signed the temperance 
pledge under her father's and mother's names while 
still a young child, but did not awaken to the need of 
entering actively upon temperance work until after the 
crusade of the women of Ohio in 1873, which she 
watched with warm approval. 

The event which finally enlisted her energies in the 
cause was the ill-treatment of a band of women 
crusaders in the streets of Chicago by a rough party of 
men. Filled with indignation at this outrage, she 
declared the crusade to be " everybody's war," took 
part in it as far as her college duties permitted, and 
began speaking at temperance meetings, in so ardent 



312 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

and effective a manner that her services were soon 
much in demand. 

Shortly after this Miss Willard resigned from the 
college in consequence of some lack of harmony in the 
faculty, and at once entered fervently upon temperance 
work. She made a journey East, conferred with the 
leaders in the cause, saw the mission temperance work 
in the slums of New York, became familiar with the 
extent of the evil and the character of the effort to 
eradicate it, and determined to give her life to this 
labor. While in Pittsburg she took part personally in 
crusade work, going to the saloons with a party of 
earnest women, kneeling with them on soiled bar-room 
floors, praying fervently, and pleading earnestly with 
liquor sellers to give up their soul-destroying business. 

One day in 1874 two letters reached her. One was 
from a school principal in New York, asking her to 
take charge of a young ladies' department at a salary 
of $2400 a year ; the other was from a friend at home 
begging her to become president of the Chicago branch 
of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, then 
just organized as an outcome of the crusade movement. 
It took her no time to choose between the salaried and 
the non-salaried offer. She at once accepted the latter 
position, flung herself ardently into the work, and in 
October, 1874, accepted the position of corresponding 
secretary of the Illinois section of the Union. 

The formation of the Women's Christian Temper- 
ance Union was a new move in the temperance cause, 
a substitution of organized and systematic work, under 
womanly auspices, for the largely desultory work 
which had before prevailed, and it had a broad field 
before it. Miss Willard threw herself, body and soul, 
into this movement, became its leader and most ener- 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 313 

getic worker, and was elected president of the National 
Union in 1879, a post which she held during the 
remainder of her life. 

A ready and pleasing orator, Miss Willard is said 
to have averaged one speech daily in favor of temper- 
ance and other reforms during the first ten years 
of her work, during which she visited every town of 
10,000 and more inhabitants and most of those of 
5,000 in the United States. In 1883 alone she is said 
to have addressed audiences in every State and Terri- 
tory in the country, travelling thirty thousand miles 
through the land. Her work was begun without salary, 
other than such chance contributions as might come in, 
but as the Union grew more prosperous a regular 
salary was paid her for her arduous and incessant 
labors. 

As the years went on, Miss Willard's evident ability 
and incessant activity led to her engaging in other 
reform movements and being given various positions 
of leadership. Strongly religious in sentiment, she 
was occupied in 1877 in aiding the evangelist Moody in 
his mission work in Boston, and subsequently took 
active part in other duties. In 1882 she was made 
a member of the Central Committee of the National 
Prohibition Party, and in 1883 organized a World's 
Women's Christian Temperance Union, with the pur- 
pose of carrying the crusade against strong drink into 
all parts of the world. Of this body also she was made 
the president. 

Indefatigable in her labors, and constantly seeking 
for some new opportunity for effective effort, in 1884 
she presented, under the auspices of the Union, a me- 
morial to each of the four political conventions for the 
nomination of Presidential candidates. In the same 



314 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

year she took part in the founding of the Home Pro- 
tection Party, organized for the protection of the home 
against the evils of intemperance, and became a mem- 
ber of its executive committee. The petition prepared 
by it was presented before the legislature of nearly 
every State. 

A new field of labor now entered by her was that of 
the White Cross and the White Shield, for the pro- 
motion of social purity, upon which she spoke widely 
in the United States and Canada, engaging in it with 
her usual vital earnestness. She accepted the leader- 
ship of this movement in the Unions of which she was 
president, making this her special department till her 
death. An active member of the ^Methodist Church, 
she was sent as a delegate to its General Conference in 
1887, and in 1889 was elected to its Commercial Coun- 
cil, but was refused admittance on some technical plea. 

The World's Women's Christian Temperance Union, 
organized by her in 1883, spread until it had member- 
ship in thirty-five different countries, and a huge poly- 
glot petition against the sale of intoxicating liquors 
and opium was distributed for signature, it eventually 
receiving the vast number of seven million signatures. 
Of these about 6,500,000 were in the United States, 
the remainder being from many countries covered by 
the World's Union. 

The petition was presented to President Cleveland 
in 1895, and two years afterwards to the govern- 
ment of Canada. Its most effective and picturesque 
presentation was before a great World's Temperance 
Convention held in London in 1896, at which the 
monster petition encircled the entire hall and lay in 
huge rolls in front of the platform. Delegates from 
temperance societies of many different countries were 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 315 

present, many of them in their picturesque native 
costumes. ]\Iiss Willard and Lady Henry Somerset 
were the presiding officers of the meeting, which was a 
very large and highly enthusiastic one. But as for the 
vast petition, it need only be said that it proved of no 
effect, the sale of liquor and opium going on unchecked. 

In 1893 ^liss Willard was honored with the chair- 
manship of the World's Temperance Convention at the 
Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Recognition of her 
standing as a worker came to her in the honorar}^ 
degree of A.M. from Syracuse University in 1871, and 
of LL.D. from the Ohio Wesleyan University in 1894. 
Her active work on the platform was kept up to the 
close of her life in all parts of the country, she mak- 
ing among her tours eight journeys through the South- 
ern States, bringing together the women of the two 
sections of the Union in harmonious association under 
the white flag of the W. C. T. U., with its famous 
motto, " For God and Home and Native Land." 

In these incessant labors the indefatigable president 
of the Union was always dignified, earnest, and in- 
spiring, while as a temperance orator her powers were 
rare and fine. As a presiding officer her excellence 
was everywhere acknowledged, her grace and gracious- 
ness of manner, tact and judgment, quickness at rep- 
artee, and intellectual alertness, winning her universal 
respect and esteem at the meetings of the White Rib- 
bon class. 

Miss Willard did not confine herself to the lines of 
activity here mentioned, but engaged also earnestly in 
editorial and literary labors. Editorially, her work was 
done on the Chicago Daily Post, the Boston Our Day, 
and The Union Signal, the special publication of the 
W. C. T. U. She was also the director of the Women's 



3i6 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

Temperance Publishiiig Association, of Chicago. Her 
books included " Nineteen Beautiful Years," already 
mentioned ; " Glimpses of Fifty Years," '' Women and 
Temperance," and a number of others. Of these, 
" Glimpses of Fifty Years " was of the character of an 
autobiography, and had a very large sale, more than 
fifty thousand copies being called for from all parts 
of the world. 

Her persistent and unceasing labors in time told 
upon Miss Willard's strength, and for several of her 
later years she suffered from ill health. Despite this 
she kept diligently at work, and, though worn out with 
labor, presided at the convention of 1897. The exer- 
tion here required proved too much for her strength, 
and she died on the i8th of February, 1898. 

We may close with an estimate of the character of 
this indefatigable worker for reform from Lady Henry 
Somerset, her intimate friend in the presidency of the 
World's Women's Christian Temperance Union : 

" Capacity for work, untiring and unremitting, is 
one of the great characteristics which close friendship 
of these years has revealed ; and save when sleeping I 
have never seen her idle. The secret of her success has 
perhaps lain in this, that she has set herself towards 
her aim and nothing would tempt her from the goal. 
' She is ambitious,' is the worst condemnation of her 
enemies ; but surely if there has been a noble and pure 
and true ambition it has been that of Frances Willard." 






CLARA BARTON, THE RED CROSS 
EVANGEL OF MERCY 

The famous Red Cross Society, founded in Europe 
in 1864 as a result of the Geneva Conference in 1863, 
did not make its way to America until 1881, its estab- 
lishment in this country being due to the efforts of the 
noble-hearted Clara Barton, who was appointed its 
president. Most of us are familiar with the beneficent 
purpose of this society, to ameliorate the sufferings 
arising from war ; but most may not know that twenty 
years before its founding in America Clara Barton was 
carrying out its ends and aims with an unselfish devo- 
tion which has rarely been equalled. If any woman in 
our land has earned a crown of glory by works of 
mercy and beneficence, none could be more deserving 
of it than this bearer of relief to the afflicted, the story 
of whose life we are about to tell. 

The daughter of a soldier who fought under Anthony 
Wayne against the Indians of the West, Clara Barton 
was born in North Oxford, Massachusetts, December 
25, 182 1. She was educated in an academy at Clinton, 
New York, became a teacher, and quickly showed her 
progressive spirit and ability by founding at Borden- 
town, New Jersey, at her own risk, the first free school 
ever opened in that State. Beginning with six pupils, 
she had six hundred by the end of her first year, and 
had obtained the money to erect a new schoolhouse, at 
a cost of four thousand dollars. 

Her life as a teacher ended in 1854, when failing 

317 



3i8 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

health obUged her to give up the absorbing duties of 
her school. Soon afterwards she obtained a position 
as clerk in the Patent Office at Washington, holding 
it till the outbreak of the Civil War, when the demands 
of the wounded and suffering appealed so strongly to 
her warm heart that she resigned her position and 
offered her services as a volunteer nurse. It was the 
first step in a long life given to this cause. 

Seeking the hospital, the camp, the battle-field itself, 
she devoted herself unflinchingly to the distressing 
work she had undertaken, nobly facing the terrible 
scenes into which it brought her, and w^hen the army 
began its Peninsular campaign in 1862 she went with 
it to the field, where she pursued her chosen work in 
a quiet, self-contained, and most efficient way, never 
flinching from the most arduous duties or the most 
harrowing scenes. Her earnest solicitation brought her 
supplies in abundance from the charitable, and all the 
resources of military trains and camp equipage were 
placed at her service, her noble and valuable work of 
aid to the suffering being everywhere acknowledged. 

She was present on many of the battle-fields of Vir- 
ginia, was eight months engaged in hospital duty on 
Morris Island during the siege of Charleston, was 
afterwards busied in the Wilderness campaign, and in 
1864 was put in charge of the hospitals at the front 
of the Army of the James, her devotion to duty not 
ceasing until the war ended. 

The close of the war brought her new work to do. 
At the request of President Lincoln she took up the 
arduous duty of searching for the 80,000 men marked 
on the army muster rolls as missing. In this service 
she went to the prison at Andersonville, aided the 
prisoners there upon their release, and continued the 



o 
9 

O 

o 

a 
o 

o 




HEROES OF PROGRESS 319 

work of identifying the dead until gravestones had 
been erected over the bodies of 12,920 men, and tablets 
marked '' unknown " placed over four hundred more. 
This labor took four years of her life, during part of 
which she gave a series of lectures upon " Incidents of 
the War," in which she told to hundreds of thousands 
of interested listeners the facts of her thrilling 
experience. 

It was while in Switzerland in 1869, whither she 
had gone for rest after her many years of hard work, 
that she first heard of the Red Cross Society. Every 
power in Europe had joined in the treaty which gave 
the members of this beneficent association immunity 
on the battle-field, and licensed them to care for the 
wounded of every creed and race, whether friends or 
foes. It was a work of mercy that appealed strongly 
to her sympathetic soul, and she promptly joined the 
society, entering quickly upon its duties, and devoting 
herself to them with the warmest zeal during the 
Franco-Prussian War. 

After the capitulation of Strassburg, she accom- 
panied the German troops in their entry into its streets, 
and there found the most iirgent need for this mission 
of benevolence. There were many thousands of home- 
less and starving people within the walls, and her heart 
was rent with sorrow at the suffering visible on every 
hand. Systematic and energetic work was needed here, 
and Miss Barton earnestly undertook the task of seek- 
ing to relieve the distress that surrounded her. Food 
was supplied for the hungry, materials for thousands 
of garments were procured, and she set the hungry and 
half-clad women at work in making these into articles 
of wear, seeing that they were paid for their labor and 
thus enabled to obtain food. 



320 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

Her work at Strassburg was quickly followed by 
similar work at Paris, where the outbreak of the Com- 
mune had caused wide-spread suffering and distress. 
Entering that terror-haunted city courageously on foot, 
she began her work with an earnestness that quickly 
won her recognition and protection among the warring 
elements, food and clothing being supplied her which 
she distributed with the judicious care born of long 
experience. The story is told that on one occasion a 
hungry mob, fiercely demanding food, had overcome 
the police in front of her dwelling. Opening the door, 
she spoke earnestly to the infuriated throng. Recog- 
nizing her as the bringer of relief to their families, 
their mood changed. 

" Mon Dieu, it is an angel !" they exclaimed. Then 
they quietly dispersed, their wild fury tamed by the 
voice of this giver of food to them and theirs. 

Miss Barton returned to America in 1873. She 
brought with her, as tokens of appreciation of her 
work, the Golden Cross of Baden, presented her by the 
Grand Duke, and the Iron Cross of Germany, presented 
by the Emperor, both of them in recognition of her 
invaluable services. In her native land, in which she 
was at that time the only member of the Red Cross, 
she earnestly applied to Congress to join in the 
international European treaty establishing this 
society, an effort in which she did not succeed until 
1881. 

As president of the American branch of the society, 
she proposed an amendment which vastly widened its 
scope. There was at that time no probability that the 
services of the Red Cross members would for years 
be called for by wars in America, and the duties of the 
society had been restricted to this purpose. Her pro- 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 321 

posal was that its scope should be widened so as 
to embrace all cases suffering from fire, flood, fam- 
ine, pestilence, or disasters of any kind calling for 

relief. 

Her amendment, which also embraced protection to 
Red Cross agents under duties of any nature, was 
agreed to by a conference of the society held at Berne 
in 1882, but was not adopted by any of the nations of 
Europe. Had the work of the society been confined 
to war. Miss Barton would have found little call for 
her services at home, but its new and broader scope 
brought her no end of duties, of the most diversified 
kind. The Michigan forest fires and the Mississippi 
Valley floods of 1882 and 1883 called for active relief 
work,' which was conducted under her supervision. 
In 1884 there came the Louisiana cyclone. Later there 
was the Charleston earthquake, the drought in Texas, 
and that frightful disaster, the Johnstown flood. When 
the news of this terrible affliction reached her she hur- 
ried to the ground on the first train, and remained there 
for five months, having under her a force of fifty men 
and women, and vast sums of money being placed at 
her disposal, for use in giving relief to the suffering 
and destitute. Later the dreadful cyclone on the Sea 
Islands of South Carolina called for similar devoted 
services. 

During part of this period Miss Barton held the posi- 
tion of superintendent of the Reformatory School for 
Women at Sherborn, Massachusetts, which was placed 
under her care in 1883. As evidence of the kind of 
work she did there, and the respect and admiration 
felt for her by the inmates, we may give the following 
incident told by a lady visitor to the institution. While 
she was being taken by the superintendent through the 



21 



322 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

wards, a girl convict raised herself on her cot and 
gazed fixedly at Miss Barton. 

" Well, what is it ? " the latter kindly asked. 

" Nothing. I heard you coming and just wanted to 
look at you." 

It was a pathetic demonstration of the warmth of 
their feeling towards her. 

In 1883 Miss Barton, at the request of a committee 
of Congress, prepared a volume entitled " History of 
the Red Cross Association." This was supplemented 
at a later date by a work similar in character, " History 
of the Red Cross in Peace and War." 

In 1884 she attended the International Peace Con- 
gress at Geneva, as a deputy from the United States, 
and on two occasions subsequently was appointed by 
the United States Government to international con- 
ferences in Europe to discuss questions of relief in 
war. 

Though the nations of Europe had not accepted the 
American widening of the purposes of the Red Cross 
Society, Miss Barton volunteered her services there 
on two critical occasions unwarlike in character. Dur- 
ing the famine in Russia in 1891-92 the American Red 
Cross Society took active part under the auspices of 
its noble president in the work of relief. Food and 
clothing were obtained in quantities and widely dis- 
tributed among the sufferers. 

Again in January, 1896, moved by the frightful 
massacres in Armenia, she made an appeal for aid to 
the charitable of this country, and in February 
reached Constantinople, attended by five assistants. 
Here an appeal was made to the Sultan for permission 
to proceed to Armenia and relieve the distress there as 
far as could be done. A reluctant assent was given. 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 323 

with the demand that Miss Barton and her assistants 
should place the crescent above the cross on the badges 
worn by them. This being complied with, a gratifying 
change was visible, the government giving prompt 
and courteous assistance, while the messengers made 
their way without delay to the scene of trouble and 
rendered timely and important service to the destitute 
and injured sufferers. 

Miss Barton's services during this mission of mercy 
were recognized by Guy de Lusignan, Prince of Jeru- 
salem, Cyprus, and Armenia, through the decoration 
of the Order of Melusine, which he conferred 
upon her. In addition to this and the crosses of honor 
bestowed upon her at the close of the Franco-Prussian 
War, she received at intervals other valuable tokens of 
appreciation, including a handsome jewel from the 
Duchess of Baden, a medal and jewel from the Em- 
press of Germany, a decoration of gems from the 
Queen of Servia, and a brooch and pendant of dia- 
monds as a tribute of gratitude from the people of 
Johnstown. 

In 1898 Miss Barton, at the request of President 
McKinley, proceeded to Cuba as a bearer of relief to 
the suffering and starving reconcentradas of that coun- 
try, and in the war that succeeded she did valuable field 
work among the sick and wounded of the army in 
Cuba. In 1900 another demand for relief came from 
the sufferers at Galveston, where a vast ocean storm 
had inundated and ruined the city. Miss Barton, with 
her accustomed promptness, hastened to the scene of 
suffering, but the strain proved too much for her, now 
nearly in her eightieth year, and she broke down and 
was forced, for the first time in her long life of ardu- 
ous work, to desist from active labors. 



324 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

History does not contain many records of devo- 
tion to humanity and self-sacrifice in women surpass- 
ing that of Clara Barton, and she amply earned the 
high regard in which she was held. She was one of 
the few American women who won a European reputa- 
tion, her name being known and revered from Paris 
and Strassburg to Russia and Armenia. In her own 
land she nobly earned her crown of fame. 



ANDREW CARNEGIE, AND THE NEW 
GOSPEL OF WEALTH 

This work is not designed as a record of the careers 
of men whose chief claim to distinction has been the 
accumulation of large sums of money. Astor and 
Girard have been spoken of as pioneers in this field, 
and the latter especially for the praiseworthy use made 
by him of his wealth. But in these later days of enter- 
prise and the development of the natural resources 
of this country the opportunities for money making 
have greatly increased, and many have far surpassed 
these pioneers in the gathering of wealth. Some 
among these have died and left part or all of their 
money to found useful institutions, but of these exam- 
ples of public service without self-sacrifice Astor and 
Girard must suffice. In our day there are some who 
are doing far better than this, giving their money while 
living, and it seems only just to tell the storv of one 
of these. We select for our example Andrew Carnegie, 
the Pittsburg multimillionaire and free-handed giver of 
good gifts, a man who has converted benevolence into 
a business. We may here fitly quote an old writer 
who quaintly said : " To amass money and to make no 
use of it is as senseless as to hunt game and not roast 
it." If he had said " good use of it " he would have 
bettered his saying. Carnegie has put the idea into 
better shape in his new " Gospel of Wealth " motto : 
"A man who dies rich dies disgraced." 

Andrew Carnegie is of Scotch birth, having been 
born in Dunfermline, Scotland, November 25, 1837. 

325 



326 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

In 1848 his father, unable longer to get work in Scot- 
land, emigrated to America. He brought with him 
a sturdy republican in his young son, whose mind had 
been filled with democratic ideas by his uncle and 
father, both of them reform orators. The stories of 
Scotch history and English tyranny had been deeply 
impressed upon his mind, and filled him with hatred of 
tyrants and love of liberty. We may find the results of 
his early training in his notable book published forty 
years afterwards, " Triumphant Democracy." 

Father, mother, and the two boys, Andy and Tom, 
duly reached their future home in Pittsburg, where 
Mr. Carnegie got work in a cotton factory, and where 
Andy, when twelve years old, began his business career 
as a bobbin-boy at the wages of a dollar and twenty 
cents a week. It was a modest beginning for one who 
was in time to become the owner of hundreds of 
millions of dollars. There have been several marvel- 
lous examples of money-making in our day, but that of 
the bobbin-boy of Pittsburg is one of the most extra- 
ordinary of them all. 

We do not propose to give in full detail the story 
of Andrew Carnegie's progress to fortune. It is a tale 
that might be repeated in different words in the career 
of many living Americans, and may be dealt with 
somewhat briefly here. It is remarkable only in the 
vast wealth he accumulated, but the narration of enter- 
prise and alertness in taking advantage of business 
opportunities has nothing In it new. There are many 
who have the abilities necessary to become very rich. 
There are few who have the opportunity to use these 
abilities. Carnegie was one of these few favorites of 
fortune. 

Changes soon came in the boy's career. At thirteen 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 327 

he was put at the hard work of firing for the boiler of 
a factory engine. At fourteen he was given a much 
easier position as telegraph-boy, with three dollars a 
week salary. His escape from the stoker's den to life 
in the open air was to the boy like an escape from 
purgatory to paradise. His leisure moments were given 
to practicing with the telegraph, in which he learned to 
take by sound instead of by tape, as was then much the 
custom. 

The boy was apt and quick, and made such progress 
that at sixteen he was installed as an operator at a 
salary of three hundred dollars a year. It came in good 
time, for his father had died and he had to bear much 
of the weight of the family support. Thomas A. 
Scott, then superintendent of the Pittsburg Division of 
the Pennsylvania Railroad, gave him his next lift. 
Attracted by the alert intelligence of the young opera- 
tor, he offered him a position as railroad telegrapher 
at ten dollars a month advance, and soon after gave 
him an opening to make an excellent investment in 
shares of the Adams Express Company. The ofifer 
was a good one, but the boy had no money. His 
mother, however, had a business head. She saw its ad- 
vantages, and mortgaged her house to raise the four 
hundred dollars needed. She thus gave the boy his 
first step as a capitalist on a small scale. 

When the Civil War broke out Carnegie was in his 
twenty-fourth year and had become private secretary 
and right hand man of A/[r. Scott, who was appointed 
in 1 861 Assistant Secretary of War, with charge of 
the important work of keeping the railroads steadily 
active. Promptness in the moving of trains, instant 
attention to stoppages and break-downs, etc., were 
highly necessary, and it needed a clear head and sound 



328 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

nerves to handle the military traffic and movements of 
troops. This was a heavy strain on Scott and Car- 
negie alike, and he was glad enough when his chief 
gave it up and returned to Pittsburg on the ist of June, 
1862. 

There was one great opportunity in Carnegie's 
career of success that must be mentioned. Splendid 
opportunities came to him for profitable investments, 
and he was quick to take advantage of them, though 
never lacking in caution and judgment. His second 
investment arose from a gentleman on a railroad train 
showing him a model of a sleeping car he had invented. 
Carnegie was quick to see its value and to push it 
into notice, he taking an interest in the company, which 
in time gained a profitable business. Shortly after- 
wards he was advanced to the position which Mr. Scott 
had formerly held, that of superintendent of the Pitts- 
burg Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad. 

So far he had only been getting his foot firmly fixed 
on the highway of life, but now came the opening for 
an immense boom in his fortunes, far beyond his 
dreams. The coal oil business was then in its early 
days of activity, new fields were being rapidly opened, 
and Carnegie joined some friends in the purchase for 
forty thousand dollars of the Storey Farm, a piece of 
promising ground on Oil Creek. The well on it, then 
running one hundred barrels daily, proved in the end 
to be immensely valuable, gaining a value on the Stock 
Exchange of $5,000,000, and paying in one year the 
surprising dividend of $1,000,000 — certainly a splendid 
return for a $40,000 investment. 

Andrew Carnegie, now twenty-seven years old, was 
thus suddenly made a capitalist. He might have pre- 
ceded Rockefeller as a great oil magnate but that 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 329 

his energies were turned in another direction. The 
wooden bridges then in use on railroads were for vari- 
ous reasons very unsatisfactory, and the Pennsylvania 
Railroad had just made a successful experiment with 
iron. This set its Pittsburg superintendent to think- 
ing. There was going to be a business, very likely a 
large business, in iron bridges, and the first in the field 
would have the best chance. He decided to be one of 
the first, organized a company, and started the Key- 
stone Bridge Works. 

A big order soon came, to build an iron bridge over 
the Ohio River, with a three hundred foot span. 
Others followed rapidly, and the Keystone Company 
soon had to extend its works. Thus our shrewd Scotch- 
man launched himself into what became a great busi- 
ness, and laid the foundation of what is to-day one of 
the finest iron and steel works in the world. Carnegie, 
inspired by the success of his first venture in the field 
of manufacture, now resigned his railroad position and 
devoted all his time and attention to the business he had 
given so timely a start. 

The Keystone Company made very rapid progress. 
Orders came from all sides, and Carnegie, as its man- 
ager, kept it fully up to date in all particulars. The 
newest time and labor saving machinery was always put 
in, every promising invention was taken advantage of, 
and a far-seeing enterprise was visible in all its affairs. 

But this establishment was far from exhausting all 
of Carnegie's energies. Another great opportunity 
came to him, and he was quick to grasp it. He made a 
visit to England in 1868, just at the time the Bessemer 
steel process had passed from the stage of experiment 
to that of success. He saw its vast prospective value 
at a glance. Steel had then in many directions, espe- 



330 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

cially in rails, begun to replace iron. He himself had, 
while in the Pennsylvania Railroad service, made a 
very successful experiment in the hardening of iron 
rails by carbon. But the rails made from Bessemer steel 
were far superior to these, and he determined at once 
to take advantage of the new process. On his return 
to Pittsburg he set promptly to work in the erection 
of a great Bessemer steel plant. As he had been 
among the first in America to see that iron was about 
to replace wood in bridges, so he was one of the 
earliest to realize that steel was soon to take the place 
of iron. It was by his foresight in these two partic- 
ulars that he laid the foundation of his enormous 
fortune. 

We have here described the initial steps of Mr. 
Carnegie's progress to fortune, from the position of 
bobbin-boy to that of the chief proprietor of great in- 
dustrial works. He might have stopped at this point. 
His fortune was large, his needs were small, he had 
abundance to live on in comfort or in luxury if he de- 
sired. But men who are on the highroad of pros- 
perity do not stop. Ambition, more than actual desire 
for larger wealth, carries them on. They like to excel, 
to stand at the top, the admired of the world, and 
Andrew Carnegie was not free from this ambition. 
Great designs awakened in his mind and he hastened to 
put them into execution. 

He felt that a great steel plant should take advantage 
of all available resources. It should own its own iron 
and coal fields and its own railways and steamships, so 
as to put itself fairly beyond competition. In pursuance 
of this scheme he built the great plant known as the 
Edgar Thompson Steel Works, on the Monongahela 
River; bought vast tracts of mineral land, much of it 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 331 

on the Great Lakes, hundreds of miles away ; purchased 
a fleet of steamships to carry the ore from the mines 
across the lakes, and built a railroad four hundred and 
twenty-five miles long to carry coal and iron directly 
to his works. 

The results of this enterprise are well known. The 
cheap steel rails turned out created an immense de- 
mand. The great works were swamped with orders. 
Their manager could not wait to build new ones, but 
purchased the plant of the neighboring Homestead 
Steel Company, whose immense foundries were close 
to his own works. He had reduced the cost of produc- 
tion to the lowest possible point. No concern in exist- 
ence could compete with him in price. The home 
trade for steel was in his hands, and he stretched out 
to grasp the trade of the world. A genius in practical 
affairs, he kept this enormous business under his own 
control, and the millions of his wealth grew until they 
became overwhelmingly large. 

We must stop here. We cannot follow the steps of 
progress of the titanic plant which rapidly grew up. It 
must suffice to say that by 1900 it included ten different 
concerns, three of them of enormous size, with a total 
of 45,000 employees. We must step forward to the 
early years of the twentieth century, when a Steel Trust 
with enormous capital was formed, its purpose being to 
control all the important works in the country. First 
of all stood the vast Carnegie plant. The " steel mas- 
ter " was ready to sell. He had always resolved to 
retire before old age came upon him. He could and did 
make his own terms, being given for his interest the 
enormous sum of $250,000,000 in bonds on the prop- 
erties of the United States Steel Corporation, bearing 
interest at the rate of five per cent. 



332 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

Mr. Carnegie had spent more than sixty years of his 
life in getting. Now began his era of giving. His 
views in regard to the use of money he has himself 
tersely expressed : *' The day is not far distant when 
the man who dies, leaving behind him millions of 
available wealth which was free for him to administer 
during life, will pass away unwept, unhonored, and 
unsung, no matter to what use he leaves the dross 
which he cannot take with him. Of such as these 
the public verdict will be : 'The man who dies thus rich 
dies disgraced.' " 

How to give for the best good of mankind was the 
problem before him. He strongly opposed indiscrim- 
inate charity, as likely to do far more harm than good, 
saying, " It were better for mankind that the millions 
of the rich were thrown into the sea than so spent as 
to encourage the slothful, the drunken, the unworthy." 
It was his fixed idea that men should be helped to 
help themselves, and this has been his view in all his 
giving. 

In this he followed what many look upon as a mis- 
taken method, believing that to establish libraries and 
thus get men into the habit of reading, at once keeping 
them from more harmful enjoyments and cultivating 
their minds, was the best way in which he could dis- 
tribute his money. Perhaps a difficulty of getting 
books in his younger days may have inspired him to 
this. Certainly most of his gifts have been in this 
direction, and he has made himself a power in the 
work of advancing the education and adding to the 
knowledge of the world. 

Let us briefly state the results of his gifts during 
the past five years. The libraries founded by him in the 
United States number nearly eight hundred, and those 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 333 

abroad more than five hundred, their total cost being 
about $40,000,000. The splendid Carnegie Institute 
founded by him at Pittsburg consumed $7,000,000, the 
Polytechnic Institute $2,000,000, and the pension fund 
for steel works workingmen $4,000,000. Scotland, his 
native land, has been remembered with $15,000,000 for 
the benefit of its university students, and Dunfermline, 
his birth-place, with $2,500,000. More recently he has 
branched out into new fields of beneficence, establish- 
ing a fund of $5,000,000 for the benefit of those who 
perform deeds of heroism, $10,000,000 to pension off 
superannuated college professors, and $10,000,000 to 
establish a National University at Washington, its 
purpose being to encourage discovery by aiding those 
engaged in original researches. These are his greatest 
gifts. There are many smaller ones. The total is esti- 
mated at considerably over $100,000,000. 

This is what Andrew Carnegie had done up to 1906 
to avoid the disgrace of dying rich. It will be seen that 
he kept firmly to his theory of not helping directly 
those able to help themselves, and did nothing to help 
those unable to help themselves, except in the way of 
pensions. But he was hale and hearty yet, his ideas 
seemed spreading, his wealth remained enormous ; no 
one could say what views he might take as to its ulti- 
mate disposal. Whatever else may be said of Andrew 
Carnegie, he must be given the honor of being a 
pioneer in establishing the theory that it is the duty of 
every rich man to use his wealth while living for the 
benefit of mankind. At the present day there are many 
following his example, doubtless largely inspired by his 
action, and the time may come when no very rich man 
will permit himself to die disgraced in this manner. 
Mr. Carnegie has not confined himself to money 



334 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

making and money giving. Since he left business he 
has enjoyed himself in a sane and moderate way. He 
has purchased a castle and an estate in Scotland, where 
much of his time is spent, and where he keeps wide 
awake to all the events of the world. He has always 
been an able thinker and a ready writer, having an in- 
cisive and picturesque way of expressing himself and 
taking broad views of political and other affairs. 

He has long been addicted to literary pursuits, and 
has written a number of interesting books. One of 
these, " Round the World," contained a lively descrip- 
tion of a journey westward around the seas and con- 
tinents. " Our Coaching Trip," issued in 1882, was a 
rambling and agreeable story of a drive through Eng- 
land and Scotland. ** Triumphant Democracy," al- 
ready spoken of, shows him to have become a true 
American in grain, however he may prefer to dwell 
in his native land. Finally we may name the " Gospel 
of Wealth," in which he lays bare his sentiments about 
many of the economic problems of the day. 

Here we have Mr. Carnegie. He is still with us and 
may long remain. And he still holds in hand much the 
greater part of that vast store of wealth with which he 
has set out to do all the good he can, in consonance 
with his own ideas of doing good. The world has 
benefited much from his beneficence ; it is likely to 
benefit much more. He will win a crown of honor 
if he succeeds in establishing as a worthy rule his 
theory that '' he who dies rich dies disgraced." 



BOOKER T. WASHINGTON, PIONEER 
OF NEGRO PROGRESS 

Near the end of the days of slavery, on a plantation 
in Franklin County, Virginia, was born a negro boy 
who was destined to lift himself, by moral and mental 
strength, into the ranks of the great men of the world. 
He is the sole representative which we can give here of 
a race that numbers more than nine millions of people 
in the United States. Freed from slavery only forty 
years ago, not yet freed from ignorance, the negro 
race has had little opportunity to develop the powers it 
may possess. Frederick Douglass, an able and brilliant 
orator of the times before the war, was the only man 
of negro blood who raised himself to a national reputa- 
tion before the coming of Booker T. Washington, of 
whose striking career it is our purpose now to speak. 

Born in a tumble-down log-cabin on an old Virginia 
plantation, the boy named came into a world in which 
he was expected to play so small a part that no record 
was kept even of the year of his birth. All he knew 
of it was that it was some time in the years 1858 or 
1859. His father, a white man, he never knew. 
He knew no name except Booker, by which he was 
called during his few years of slave life on the plan- 
tation. A mere toddler as he was, only six or seven 
years old when the war ended and freedom came, he 
was kept busy at odd jobs, cleaning the yard, carrying 
water to the men, taking corn to the mill, and, as he 
says, at times falling from the horse with his bag of 

335 



336 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

corn and sitting in tears by the wayside until some 
one came along to lift him up again. 

Schooling was not thought of for any one with 
a black skin, though the little slave boy already felt 
a thirst for knowledge. He tells us how he would 
carry the books of his young mistress when she went 
to school and gaze wistfully through the door into 
the school-room, closed against all of his color, but 
which seemed to him like a paradise to which he was 
denied entrance. 

The slaves, he tells us, knew well the purpose of 
the war. They had a system of wireless telegraphy 
of their own, by which they often heard of events 
in the field before their masters. The fact that *'Massa 
Linkum " had set them free was quickly spread 
among them, and when the war ended and they could 
move about without hindrance, many of them hastened 
to test their new liberty by leaving the plantations 
on which their lives had been spent. 

Booker's reputed father, who had been a slave on 
a neighboring plantation, made his way to West 
Virginia, where he got work in the mines and soon 
sent for his wife and children. Here little Booker 
was put to work in a salt furnace. His childish 
desire to learn grew intense as time passed on. The 
art of reading seemed something magical to the child, 
who had an alert brain under his sable skin; and, 
getting possession in some way of a book, he pored 
over it intently, with no one to help, for all around were 
as ignorant as himself. All he succeeded in doing was 
to learn the alphabet from it; the joining of the letters 
into words was beyond his childish powers. 

Some time later a young negro opened a school 
in the vicinity, but, to his keen disappointment, his 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 337 

father would not let him go, insisting that he should 
keep at work. Determined to open the closed door 
of knowledge, he managed to get some lessons at 
night from the teacher, and appealed so earnestly that 
his father finally consented to his going to day school 
for a few months, if he would work in the furnace 
until nine o'clock in the morning and for two hours 
in the afternoon after school had closed. 

Little Booker was willing to do anything to gain an 
education. His thirst for knowledge had grown with 
his years, and there was no danger but that he would 
be a diligent student. But his first day at school 
brought him in face of a distressing difficulty. When 
the teacher called the roll he learned that every boy 
there had at least two names. He felt a deep sense 
of shame at the fact that he had only one. He had 
never been called anything but Booker, and knew of 
no other name. But a native shrewdness made him 
equal to the situation. When the teacher asked for 
his name he calmly replied that it was Booker Wash- 
ington, appropriating the name of the Father of the 
Country without a qualm of conscience. Later on 
his mother told him that his real name was Booker 
Taliaferro, but he clung to the name he had adopted, 
and has ever since been known as Booker T. 
Washington. 

From the salt furnace the boy was transferred to 
a coal mine, a change, in his opinion, much for the 
worse ; but a few months later he got a place as 
servant in the house of Mrs. Ruffner, the wife of the 
mine owner. Mrs. Ruffner had the name of being 
a hard mistress, with whom no servant would stay 
more than a few months, but Booker soon found that 
the trouble was more with the servants than with 
22 



S3S HEROES OF PROGRESS 

the mistress. What she demanded was that they 
should keep things clean and do their work promptly 
and systematically. When her new boy learned what 
she wanted he did his best to please her, and instead 
of a harsh taskmaster found her considerate and just. 
He stayed with her a year and a half, and might have 
stayed much longer, for he had made Mrs. Ruffner a 
kind friend, but for a new desire that stirred his 
soul. 

One day, while in tl^^ coal mine, he had heard two 
miners talking about a great school for colored people 
somewhere in Virginia. He heard also that worthy 
students could work out part of their board and be 
taught a useful trade. The news filled him with an 
intense eagerness to go to this wonderful school, 
and in the fall of 1872, when he was thirteen or four- 
teen years old, he determined to get there if it was 
possible. 

His mother strongly opposed the idea, and gave 
her consent only after long pleading. But the colored 
people of the vicinity favored it, education seeming to 
them like an inestimable treasure. Some of them 
helped the boy with a little money, and at length, with 
a very slender purse, he set out on his long journey 
to Hampton, five hundred miles away. 

He had expected to ride there, but his first day's 
journey in the stage coach showed him that his funds 
would not carry him a fifth of the way, and he changed 
riding for walking, except when he could beg a ride. 
He reached the city of Richmond at length. His 
pockets were empty, and Hampton still far away. No 
lodging was to be had for a wandering colored urchin, 
and that night he slept under a raised part of the board 
sidewalk. The next day he earned a little money 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 339 

by helping unload a vessel at the wharves, and this 
he kept at for several days, still sleeping under the 
boards. Years afterwards, when he visited Richmond 
as a distinguished man, he sought out this spot in the 
streets and looked with pathetic interest upon his first 
sleeping place in Virginia's capital city. When he 
reached Hampton at length, he had just fifty cents 
with which to get an education in the famous institute. 

A sorry picture was the vagrant student when he 
presented himself tremblingly before the head teacher 
of the institute. Ill-clad, begrimed, hungry-looking, 
he waited with sinking heart while others were ad- 
mitted, but no attention paid to him. At length, after 
a weary probation, the teacher looked him over dis- 
approvingly, and put a broom into his hands, telling 
him to sweep one of the recitation-rooms. Now 
young Booker's severe training under Mrs. Rufifner 
served him well. He swept and dusted that room so 
thoroughly that when the teacher, a Yankee house- 
wife, came in she could not find a speck of dust 
hiding anywhere. *'I guess you will do to enter this 
institution," she said. 

The boy had swept his way into her good graces. 
She offered him a position as janitor, which enabled 
him to pay his board, and was ever afterwards his 
good friend. General Armstrong, that faithful friend 
of the blacks who was at the head of the institution, 
was so pleased with the earnestness and intelligence of 
the boy, one of the youngest under his care, that he 
induced a friend to pky the $70 a year for the little 
lad's tuition, and thus he was fairly launched upon the 
highroad of education. 

That Booker worked hard we may be assured. His 
diligence, fidelity, and studiousness won him friends 



340 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

on all sides. He got work outside during the vaca- 
tions, and after two years paid a visit home, only to 
see his mother die. She had been a good mother to 
him, and he mourned her loss. 

His term at Hampton ended in 1875, but his con- 
nection with the institution did not cease, for after a 
time he was made a teacher in the night-school and 
also put in charge of the Indian inmates. The oppor- 
tunity of his life, for which he had been unwittingly 
preparing, came in 1881, while he was still night- 
school teacher at Hampton. An application had come 
to General Armstrong for some one to take charge of a 
colored normal school at Tuskegee, Alabama. The 
kindly superintendent, who knew well the capability of 
his night-school teacher, offered him the position, and 
Booker, with some natural hesitation, agreed to try. 

Tuskegee was a town of about two thousand popula- 
tion, nearly half of them colored. It was situated in 
the Black Belt of Alabama, negroes being plentiful 
and education sparse. The legislature had voted an 
annual appropriation of $2000 to pay the running ex- 
penses of the school, but when the new teacher reached 
Tuskegee he was disappointed to find that no building 
and no equipment had been provided. There were 
plenty of scholars, but that was all. 

Booker went to work with a will, determined to 
make the most of his chance. The best place he could 
get for a school-house was an old shanty near the 
colored Methodist church, and here he opened with 
thirty students, ranging from fifteen to forty years of 
age, most of them having already served, In some fash- 
ion, as school-teachers. The roof was so leaky that 
when it rained one of the students had to hold an 
umbrella over him as he taught. 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 341 

After three weeks Miss Olivia A. Davidson came to 
the school as a co-teacher — a bright girl, with new 
ideas, who afterwards became Mr. Washington's wife. 
Booker Washington was a born man of business 
from the start. After he had been in Tuskegee for 
three months an abandoned plantation near by was 
offered for sale for the low sum of $500. He deter- 
mined to obtain it if possible, and succeeded in bor- 
rowing from the treasurer of the Hampton Institute 
$250 for a first payment. The remaining sum was 
raised by various measures in time to make the final 
payment and secure the property. 

The mansion house of the plantation had been 
burned down. The buildings remaining consisted of 
a cabin which had been used as the dining-room, a 
kitchen, a stable, and an old henhouse. The latter 
two were used for school purposes, and the others 
as residences. The first animal obtained was an old, 
blind horse. It was the pioneer in a troop of animals 
which now embraces over two hundred horses, oxen, 
and cows, about seven hundred hogs, and many sheep 
and goats, while the original tumble-down buildings 
have been replaced by a large number of well built 
structures, nearly all erected by the students them- 
selves. 

The new principal was a man of ambitious views 
and genius for affairs. His first daring undertaking 
was to build a $6000 school-house without a dollar 
of capital. But he had already won a reputation for 
ability and integrity and help came in. The neces- 
sary lumber was supplied by a dealer in the vicinity 
who insisted on sending it and waiting for pay. Con- 
tributions came from many sources, and the building 
was completed and paid for. By this time the stren- 



342 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

uous and self-sacrificing efforts of the young teacher 
and the remarkable results he was achieving with the 
smallest means were becoming known and appreciated 
throughout the country, and aid began to come in 
from many sources. He made in subsequent years 
frequent lecturing tours in the North, describing with 
simple eloquence the character and needs of his work, 
and obtaining in this way the annual amount neces- 
sary for its prosecution. 

His purpose was to develop at Tuskegee an educa- 
tional and industrial school, teaching the essential 
elements of education while making each student 
familiar with some trade, and in this he has had so 
signal a success that he is looked upon as having 
solved the problem of the future of the negro in 
America. It has throughout been his purpose to make 
his students capable, self-supporting, and self-respect- 
ing, a design which has been carried out to a highly 
gratifying extent, while the present school at Tuskegee 
has given birth to various offsprings in which the same 
methods are pursued. 

All the ordinary trades are taught in the institution, 
especially the various branches of farming. Twenty- 
five separate industries are carried on by the students, 
the object being to train the colored youth in self- 
supporting occupations, while the girls are taught 
the branches most useful to them. Washington holds 
that the race problem will be solved when the negro 
becomes a valuable workman and financially indepen- 
dent, and he has done noble work in the effort to bring 
this about. 

The leaky cabin with which he began is now super- 
seded by forty or more handsome and well adapted 
buildings, large and small, all but four of which have 



HEROES OF PROGRESS 343 

been erected by student labor, even to the making of 
the bricks and the sawing of the planks. The thirty 
students with whom he began have increased to over 
eleven hundred, and his solitary labors have been 
replaced by the work of some eighty instructors, 
while the old shanty of 1881 has grown in the short 
space of twenty years to an extensive group of edifices, 
and his fragment of meeting-house ground to a broad 
estate of 2460 acres, the whole valued at over $300,000, 
and with an endowment fund of $215,000. This looks 
like a magical result from the work of the ragged and 
penniless boy who made his way on foot to Hampton 
Institute in 1872, and we cannot but look upon Booker 
Washington as an extraordinary man. 

This was the state of affairs in 1900. Since then the 
development has continued, and the endowment fund 
has been greatly increased by the generous gift from 
Andrew Carnegie of $600,000, to be used as Mr. 
Washington wishes, except that he and his wife shall 
be provided for out of its proceeds. Carnegie says 
of Mr. Washington : " To me he seems one of the 
greatest of living men, because his work is unique, 
the modern Moses who leads his race and lifts it 
through education to even better and higher things 
than a land overflowing with milk and honey. History 
is to tell of two Washingtons, one white, the other 
black, both fathers of their people." 

Carnegie is not alone in this opinion. There are 
many who look upon Booker T. Washington as one 
of the greatest of living men. He has won the respect 
and admiration of the South as well as of the North. 
He went far to win the South by his highly effective 
address at the opening of the Atlanta Exposition of 
1895. The Boston Transcript said of this speech : " It 



344 HEROES OF PROGRESS 

seems to have dwarfed all the other proceedings and 
the Exposition itself. The sensation it has caused in 
the press has never been equalled." Its purpose 
was to show how the whites and blacks could live 
together in harmon}- in the South. 

Since then Tuskegee has become a place of pilgrim- 
age for our Presidents on their journeys through the 
land. President McKinley visited it, with the general 
approbation of the people, and in 1905 President 
Roosevelt did the same. In history there are few 
examples of so remarkable a career as that of this 
Moses of the negro race. 



THE END 



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